Sweden launches adoption investigation following kidnapping reports of Chinese children
The Swedish government will launch an investigation into the adoption of children from other countries, especially China and Chile, over the past 70 years to verify irregularities in the processes, after receiving reports of possible theft and kidnapping of minors.
The local Sweden writes that according to Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren, a commission has been appointed to investigate more than 60,000 international adoptions from 1950 until today. “The investigator will investigate whether irregularities have occurred in the countries from which most adoptions took place, as well as the countries where there are strong suspicions that there have been irregularities,” Hallengren told reporters.
Swedish media have over the years reported on how children have been adopted with the help of forged adoption documents, mothers who had their children wrongly declared dead at birth, as well as forced adoptions, kidnappings and stolen children.
Children who have been adopted to Sweden since the middle of the 20th century have mainly come from South Korea, India, Colombia and Sri Lanka, but over 4,000 children have also been adopted from China.
According to an investigation report from Dagens Nyheter, the children who are adopted from China are often infants who Chinese authorities say have been abandoned by their parents but several adoption scandals have appeared in China. The scandals include the abduction of children alleged to have been born in violation of population control policies and then smuggled by officials to adoptions around the world.
Sweden will formally appoint Anna Singer, professor of civil and family law at Uppsala University, as head of the adoption investigation and she will submit her conclusions in November 2023, writes Lokalsverige.