A South Korean investigation has revealed that the nation violated the human rights of children through its foreign adoption scheme, which was marred by deception and misconduct. The groundbreaking report, unveiled on Wednesday, came after numerous grievances from adoptees based in Europe, the United States, and Australia. This represents the most exhaustive examination of a controversial adoption system that exported approximately 200,000 Korean children overseas.
The findings echo an earlier inquiry that highlighted coercive tactics imposed on birth mothers who were often misled into relinquishing their babies. Additionally, adoption groups allegedly incentivized medical institutions to funnel children their way.
It has emerged that the documentation of many adoptees was falsified, leading some individuals to find, years later, that they weren’t abandoned as they were led to believe, but had been misplaced or taken, with their birth parents fruitlessly searching for them back in Korea. The investigation illustrated how South Korea expedited the adoption process to alleviate its own social welfare burdens, despite warnings from humanitarian entities about aggressive competition among agencies for children. Western nations reportedly dismissed these issues, eager to supply local demand.
In a statement, the commission concluded that the state breached adoptees’ rights under both domestic and international law by failing to guarantee fundamental rights, citing inadequate legislative measures and poor oversight in the adoption process.
Following the publication of the previous investigation findings, many adoptees reached out for assistance in discovering their origins, with a collaborative documentary also shedding light on these poignant narratives. The quest for identity remains formidable, as both recent investigations highlight that children were frequently falsely labeled as abandoned and that identities were sometimes swapped by agencies to circumvent reinitiation of the adoption process.
This practice has rendered tracing familial roots challenging, as illustrated by government data revealing that fewer than 20% of 15,000 adoptees who have requested aid have managed to reconnect with their biological families since 2012.
Internationally, several European nations have started examining their roles in the malpractice associated with Korean adoptions, although the United States, which received the largest number of children, has yet to launch a similar investigation.
Sang Hoon Lee, a commissioner involved in the investigation, emphasized the importance of scrutinizing adoptions to the United States, noting that European adoptees filed the majority of grievances. Recommendations from the Korean commission suggest an official apology should be extended to those sent abroad. Nonetheless, some experts, like human rights attorney Choi Jung Kyu, argue that these recommendations lack clear reparative actions.