A South Korean commission discovered that women were coerced into giving up their babies for foreign adoptions after delivering at government-funded facilities where thousands endured confinement and exploitation from the 1960s to the 1980s. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report, released on Monday, examined four facilities in cities and provinces across South Korea, uncovering a pattern similar to that previously exposed at Brothers Home in Busan. This operation saw the shipping of children overseas as part of a profit-focused enterprise that took advantage of those confined within its walls, leading to abuse and even death for many.
The commission, established in December 2020 to investigate human rights violations linked to past military regimes, found evidence of at least 20 adoptions from facilities in Daegu and South Chungcheong province in 1985 and 1986. During those peak years of South Korea’s foreign adoption program, over 17,500 children were sent abroad. Newborns taken from these facilities were swiftly transferred to adoption agencies like Holt Children’s Services and Eastern Social Welfare Society, which arranged placements with families in several countries.
While some records indicate that women willingly consented to giving up their children, there were signs that others were pressured to do so, as noted in a 1985 case from Huimangwon. The commission faced limitations in tracking the full extent of these adoptions due to staffing constraints but confirmed 14 adoptions from Huimangwon in 1985 and 1986, with six more from Cheonseongwon.
Additionally, the commission outlined other severe human rights abuses at these facilities, such as alarmingly high death rates and the exploitation of inmates for labor, including the transfer of bodies for anatomy practice without efforts to locate relatives. The commission’s investigation also revealed that these facilities received inmates from Brothers, suggesting a profit-driven cycle that prolonged confinement and mistreatment.
South Korea’s history of forcibly confining marginalized groups peaked in the 1980s during efforts to clean up streets before major international events. The country has since transitioned to democracy and ceased such practices. Brothers Home shut down in 1988 following exposure by a prosecutor, while Seonghyewon now provides welfare services for the homeless in Hwaseong. The other three facilities have rebranded and altered their services. The commission’s work sheds light on long-concealed violations and aims to bring justice to victims who suffered in these facilities for decades.
