A South Korean commission has accused successive governments of making widespread human rights offenses by making mass overseas acceptance of at least 170,000 children, often by fraudulent and coercive resources.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its findings on Wednesday after nearly three years of 367 of the approximately 140,000 South Korean children sent to six European countries, including Denmark, which urged Seoul to investigate the adoptions in 2022, as well as the US and Australia.
Local adoption agencies have been found to have cooperated with foreign groups to export South Korean children of mass exports, powered by monthly quotas asked by foreign demand.
Many adoptions occurred in questionable or unethical way.
The commission has determined “the state has violated the human rights of adopted persons protected by the Constitution and international agreements by its duty to ensure basic human rights, including insufficient legislation, poor management and supervision, and failures in the implementation of proper administrative procedures, while sent large numbers of children abroad”.
The report released on Wednesday filed the first 100 of the 367 complaints filed by adopted people between 1964 and 1999.
The adopted persons, from 11 countries, have long suspected that their adoptions were infected by corruption and malpractice, and concerns about the Korean adopted community.
The commission concluded that 56 of the 100 were pleasant ‘victims’ of state legality, which was a violation of their rights under the South Korean constitution as well as international conventions.
It noted that South Korean agencies have gained a quick authority over children, including full guardianship and power to approve foreign adoptions. Such a lack of supervision has led to large -scale adoptions between the country, with many children losing their true identities and family history as a result of falsified or produced records.
Since 1953, South Korea has sent almost 200,000 children abroad for adoption, making it the largest source of adopted businesses in the world. In the Asian country’s impoverished post -war years, the government prioritized overseas adoptions over the development of a domestic welfare system and relied on private agencies to send children abroad in exchange for fees of adoptive families.
“Many legal and policy shortcomings have emerged,” said Park Sun Young, head of the commission. “These offenses should never have occurred.”
Peter Moller, a South Korean adopted person from Denmark who led an international campaign for an investigation, said The New York Times That the report of the Truth Commission acknowledged “that the fraud, fraud and issues within the Korean adoption process cannot remain hidden”.
The commission found that many children were sent abroad for adoption with ‘falsified or manufactured’ identities and family history, often without legal consent.
Adoption agencies, such as the Korea social service, misrepresented the backgrounds of their adoptive families and benefited from the process.
They charged high fees and used the funds to acquire more and more children, the commission pointed out, making the adoption ‘a profit -driven industry’ in which children were treated like cargo.
The government of South Korea has never directly recognized responsibility for such adoption practices.
From Thursday morning, Associated Press reports, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said that it had not yet formally received the commission’s report, but that he would actively review his recommendations.
He added that “attempts to improve the adoption system will continue”, referring to the preparations to implement a new law in July designed to strengthen the state’s responsibility above adoptions.
The commission said that the government has “actively utilized” foreign adoptions, which “need no budget allocation”, instead of investing in a social safety net for vulnerable children.
At a press conference Wednesday, Yooree Kim sent Kim to France at the age of 11 without the consent of her biological parents, the commission urged to strengthen his recommendations.
She called on the government to promote broader DNA testing for biological families to improve the chances of reunions with their children and to officially put an end to foreign adoptions.
She said that adopted people affected by illegal practices “must receive compensation from the Korean government and adoption agencies without going through lawsuits”.
In accordance with its findings, the commission recommended the government a formal apology, providing remedies for the affected, and ratifying the Hague Convention for the Protection of Children and Cooperation in terms of adoption of the country.
“It was a long wait for everyone,” Han Boon Young, one of the 100 pleasant whose affairs were heard by the commission, told CNN. ‘And now we get a win. It’s a win. ‘
Ms Han, who grew up in Denmark, said she was not officially recognized as a ‘victim’ due to a lack of documentation.
“If they say, we acknowledge that it is state violence, how can they not recognize those who do not have much information? Because it’s really the essence of our issues, that we don’t have information, ‘she told CNN. “It’s forged, it’s changed.”
