Truth Committee finds that South Korea commits rights violations during overseas adoption
A Truth Committee said on Wednesday that South Korean adoption agencies have sent children abroad for decades, such as “baggage,” and labeled some orphans when they send other babies overseas before they die, when they die.
After a two-year investigation, the South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission, authorized by the country’s parliament, recommended that the government make a formal apology, conduct a follow-up investigation, and take relief measures for the victims.
It said that between 1964 and 1999, at least 56 adopted people filed petitions from 367 adopters, including the United States, France, Denmark and Sweden.
Over the past few years, several European countries have investigated possible illegal activities in their international adoption practices. Some people have published their discoveries or attacked independent bodies. Canada has not followed suit.
CBC News has spoken with more than 20 adopters in Canada and around the world who questioned the accuracy of their adoption documents from South Korea.
When introducing its discovery, the committee published a photo of the baby with a blanket written on it and tied to a seat on the passenger plane in 1984, titled “Children who go abroad like luggage.”
It noted that South Korean adoption agencies meet the requirement of foreign agencies to send a certain number of children per month.
Post-war adoption
The destruction of the Korean War in the early 1950s led to overseas adoption programs for Korean babies, a mixed-race father of Western soldiers. This quickly gradually developed into a “export-rich” general corier baby, according to the CBC’s internal government letter.
The committee said the South Korean government has overlooked the responsibility of providing oversight and blocking “misconduct by adoption agencies” such as fraudulent orphan registration, tampering with identity and under-scrutiny of adoptive parents.
The adoption agency did not get proper consent, and forged documents forged babies as orphans when they knew their parents, and others were sent out with names when some babies died before they went abroad.
“In the nearly 50 years after the Korean War, the government has prioritized transnational adoption as a cost-effective alternative to strengthening family-child welfare policies,” the committee said.
Investigation has been conducted since 2020
The Independent Commission was formed by the Parliamentary Amendment Act in 2020, with four people each named by the ruling and opposition parties to form the eight members sitting under the president-appointed chair.
South Korea’s acting presidential office was unable to comment immediately on its report.
After decades of believing that they were orphans, several North Korean Canadians learned that their biological parents might still be alive. Priscilla Ki Sun Hwang of CBC helped reveal how they got here and why some say Canada has overlooked evidence of adoption instruments.
In addition to recommending an official apology, the Committee calls for a comprehensive investigation into the citizenship of adopters and any corresponding policy measures, remedies for victims of forgery of identity, prompt ratification of the Hague Adoption Convention, and ensuring the commitment of adoptive agencies to restore adopters’ rights.
“These violations will never happen,” said committee chairman Park Sun-Young. “We have to come together to help both the state and adopters solve the identity crisis faced by many adopters.”
