World’s ‘ba exporter’ South Korea admits to ‘mass exporting’ children for adoption | World News
South Korea’s government has been held responsible for multiple human rights violations for fabricating birth records, falsely reporting that children had been abandoned over decades for a programme which sent about 200,000 children and babies abroad for adoption, a landmark enquiry the truth commission has found.
Private agencies were able to export babies and children due to government’s lack of oversight and the agencies were driven profit which enabled the “mass exportation of children” and numerous examples of coercion, false records and fraud have been found in the scheme.
According to a CNN report, over 200,000 children and babies have been exported from South Korea since the 1950s when the country was rebuilding itself from the aftermath of World War 2 and the devastating Korean war, which gave rise to the adoption industry in South Korea.
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Peter Møller, Boonyoung Han, co-founders of the Danish Korea Rights Group, and adoptee Yooree Kim, attend a press conference at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Seoul, South Korea. (AP Photo)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, appointed the South Korean government, has said that it found human rights violations in 56 of the complaints and vows to review the remaining cases before its mandate expires in May.
The report the truth commission released on Wednesday examined complaints from 367 adoptees in Europe, the United States, and Australia in over three years of investigation, and the probe has represented one of the most comprehensive examinations of South Korea’s foreign adoptions.
Commissioner Lee Sang-hoon believes that since the adoption industry was almost completely being run the private agencies without any government oversight, it became a part of the problem.
“When adoption agencies depend on donations from adoptive parents, they are pressured to continue sending children abroad to sustain their operations. This structure increases the risk of illegal adoptions,” Lee added, as reported CNN.
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