Swedish Adoptees Speak Out Against Child Trafficking

Informal translation of yesterday's article in Aftonbladet.

Adoption may be child trafficking

12 foreign adoptees: Western needs should not allow human trafficking.

We support the Social Ministry's decision not to extend adoption agreement with Vietnam.

We want to protest against the Western-centric perspective that dominates the international adoption business, and defend our and all other adoptees right not to have to live with the suspicion that irregularities were committed in terms of our own adoptions, such as excessive commonly forged documents, false identities and invented stories, are writing 12 foreign adoptees.

The international adoption business since the turn of the millennium not only exploded in scale with the now nearly 40 000 adoptions per year, but was also shaken by a variety of reports on irregularities. Never before were so many children from the Third World adopted to the West, but at the same time, the business has never before involved so many corruption scandals than just in the 2000s.

Due to the falling birth rate in the West and growing prosperity in many countries in the Third Worldm international adoption is today facing an unprecedented situation: There are now more childless adults in the West who want to adopt, than there are adoptable children in the Third World. Then increasing sums of money in circulation have tagged this delicate situation for activities that increasingly are spiraling out in pure human trafficking.

Therefore, the adoption scandals were repeatedly documented over the recent years in leading countries such as China, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Ethiopia, Brazil, Paraguay and Guatemala. This has led many beneficiary countries such as Germany, England, Canada, Holland and Australia to terminate its adoption agreement with the most
corruption-stricken countries of origin.

In Sweden, which is the country in the world that proportionately adopted far the largest number of foreign-born children, have adoption organisations, however, chosen to ignore the destructive developments by expanding its operations into new countries that are notorious for child trafficking, and by continuing to adopt from such countries with the argument that the Swedes have a higher morale than other
Westerners. In 2002, for example Adoptionscenter got authorisation of the State Agency for International Adoption Affairs to adopt from Cambodia, despite reporting
about trafficking and the U.S. that stopped adoptions from the country.
The authorization was later lifted after the Swedish Embassy in Cambodia protested against this with reference to the extensive trafficking in the country.

Now this pattern was recently repeated by Social Affairs that decided not to extend the adoption agreement with Vietnam with reference to the presence of child trafficking, and that the country is not to enter the Hague Convention on Protection of Children in International adoptions. This convention back in 1993 meant to curb an increasingly uncontrollable adoption industry, but still Sweden has a number of
Swedish adoption agencies engaged in activities in countries of origin, including Korea, Thailand and Colombia, that not signed the Convention.

We wish to express our support for the Social Ministry's decision not to extend the adoption agreement with Vietnam. Western needs to receive adopted children should not steer the international adoption industry, thus risking that trade in human beings gets legitimized and legalized.

As foreign adoptees, we want to protest against the Western-centric perspective that today dominates the international adoption affairs, and assert our and all other adopted children's right not to have to live with the suspicion that irregularities occurred in terms of our own adoptions, as they are unfortunately too common,
with forged documents, false identities and fake histories, which is a consequence of the adult needs and profit-making governing the international adoption business.

Today's debaters
Daniel Cidrelius, socialantropolog and adopted from Sri Lanka
Gitte Enander, jur. Lawyer. and adopted from Korea
Charlotta Göthlin, Information and adopted from Korea
Daniel Hansson, jur. Stud. and adopted from the Dominican Republic
Linda Place, PhD, and adopted from Korea
Mikael Jarnlo, social and adopted from Ethiopia
Fatima Jonsson, PhD, and adopted from Korea
Patrik Lundberg, a journalist and adopted from Korea
Danjel Nam, a journalist and adopted from Korea
Helena Nilsson, behaviorist and adopted from Korea
Matilda Sjödell, teachers and adopted from Korea
Malena Swanson, jur. Lawyer. and adopted from Korea