Latest news with #Adoptionscentrum
Local Sweden
2 days ago
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Swedish PM 'not ruling out' state apology to international adoptees
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who chaired the agency managing adoptions to Sweden some 20 years ago, has said he's not ruling out an apology after an inquiry unveiled widespread abuses spanning several decades. Advertisement Kristersson told the TT news agency that he's not ruling out an official state apology to international adoptees, after the government-appointed inquiry sharply criticised previous state inaction on adoptions under questionable circumstances. The investigation, led by civil law professor Anna Singer, found evidence of child trafficking in about ten cases, mostly from the 1970s and 80s. In many more cases, parental consent was missing or poorly documented. It proposed banning all international adoptions. It was launched in 2021 after reports surfaced of children stolen from countries such as Chile, China, and South Korea. Kristersson himself has been caught up at the centre of scandal, as he served as chair of Adoptionscentrum, the organisation arranging international adoptions to Sweden, between 2003 and 2005. "The information there is now didn't exist at the time, it has emerged afterwards," he told TT. He said that he welcomed the inquiry commission's report. "It's incredibly important that this work has been done. There's a great number of proposals from the commission which we are now going to study very carefully," he said. "The government isn't ruling anything out."
Euronews
5 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
Government investigator calls on Sweden to halt international adoption
Results of a government probe into Sweden's adoption practices prompted its lead investigator to call for a halt to all international adoptions, domestic media reported. "There have been irregularities in the international adoptions to Sweden," Anna Singer, the head of the Swedish Adoption Commission, said during a press conference on Monday, during which she handed over the findings of the investigation to Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson. "Today, with increased respect for children's rights, we cannot accept the levels of risk that this activity is and has been associated with." During the probe, investigators have discovered confirmed cases of child trafficking and illegal adoptions in every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s. The commission recommended that the Swedish state acknowledge violations of human rights and formally apologise to adoptees and their families. It also proposed that Sweden gradually phase out its international adoption activity and introduce long-term support for adoptees and their families. Minister Waltersson said the Swedish government takes the findings very seriously. "We have gained even more clarity in the fact that children and parents have been affected and harmed for decades within the framework of international adoption activities," she said. It will now analyse the commission's conclusions and proposals. Adoptionscentrum, Sweden's largest agency for international adoptions, is in favour of reviewing current practices, but questions a total ban. "If the alternative for a child is to grow up in an institution, I think that growing up in a safe family in another country could be in the best interests of the individual child," Margret Josefsson, vice-chair of the Adoption Centre, told public broadcaster SVT. The Adoption Committee was appointed in the autumn of 2021 following an investigation by the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN), which found examples of what journalists referred to as "stolen children" from South Korea, China, Sri Lanka and Chile, among others. It revealed that thousands of children were adopted in Sweden with falsified background information. While the children's documentation stated that they had been abandoned or that their parents could not afford to keep them, the DN investigation showed that, in several cases, biological parents were robbed of their children. This was confirmed by the commission as revealed on Monday. "Children have in some cases been adopted without the voluntary and informed consent of the parents. The best interests of the child have not always been ensured," the report said. In Chile and Colombia, mothers told of how their children had been abducted from day-care centres and hospitals. In some countries, these activities involved gangs consisting of hospital staff, lawyers, police and government officials. The investigation by DN also found that Swedish authorities knew about child trafficking and this corruption in key adoption countries, but did not take action. In its report, the commission stated that, in some cases, "Swedish actors were aware that irregularities had already occurred when they occurred, while in other cases it was discovered much later". Sweden is the latest country to examine its international adoption policies after allegations of unethical practices. The Netherlands last year announced it would no longer allow its citizens to adopt children from abroad after a scathing report on abuses was published in 2021, including reports of child theft, child trafficking and unethical actions by officials. Meanwhile, Denmark's only overseas adoption agency announced last year it was 'winding down' its facilitation of international adoptions after a government agency raised concerns over fabricated documents and procedures which obscured children's biological origins abroad. Sweden's neighbour Norway is conducting probes into past adoption practices regarding adoptees from South Korea. More than 6,500 children came from the Asian country to the Nordic country. Meanwhile, the Belgian region of Flanders has also paused international adoptions following reports of malpractice with adoptions from Ethiopia, the Gambia, Haiti and Morocco.
New Straits Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Swedish probe suggests banning international adoptions
STOCKHOLM: A Swedish probe ordered by the government recommended today banning international adoptions, citing serious irregularities spanning decades. Children brought to Sweden have been adopted from abroad without the free and informed consent of their parents, erroneously declared dead, or put up for adoption by someone other than their parents, the head of the probe, Anna Singer, told a press conference. "In some cases, they have also been given up by parents who did not understand the implications of consenting to international adoption," Singer said, as she handed her report to Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Gronvall. There had also been "confirmed cases of child trafficking in every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, primarily in the context of private adoptions", Singer said. Cases of trafficking had been reported from Sri Lanka and Colombia in the 1970s and 1980s, Poland in the 1990s, and China in the 1990s and 2000s, she said. The probe also showed the government had been aware of these irregularities "very early on". About 60,000 people in Sweden have been adopted from abroad, according to the Family Law and Parental Support Authority (MFoF). The top five countries of origin are South Korea, India, Colombia, China and Sri Lanka. The report found "significant and systemic gaps" in documentation in Sweden concerning the origin of children adopted abroad. False information such as "the date of birth, information on the parents, as well as the circumstances and reasons" for the adoption had been identified in documents, Singer said. The report noted that Swedish regulations had been aimed primarily to facilitate international adoption. Most of the adoption activity was handled by private organisations, which had an interest in having as many children as possible adopted, according to the report. Due to the irregularities, the probe proposed banning all international adoptions and that Sweden publicly apologise to those affected. "The state needs to recognise the human-rights violations that have occurred," Singer said. International adoptions have drastically decreased in Sweden since the 1980s, according to data from Adoptionscentrum, the country's largest adoption mediation group. In 1985, more than 900 children were adopted abroad, compared to 14 since the beginning of 2025, according to the organisation.-AFP
