South Korean adoption agencies sent children abroad like “luggage” for decades, labelling some as orphans when they had parents and sending alternative babies when infants had died before heading overseas, a truth commission said on Wednesday.
After a two-year inquiry, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was empowered by the country’s parliament, recommended the government make an official apology, carry out follow-up investigations and put relief measures in place for victims.
It said it found human rights violations in the cases of at least 56 adoptees from a petition filed by 367 adoptees who were sent overseas between 1964 and 1999 to 11 countries, including the United States, France, Denmark and Sweden.
In the past few years, several European countries have investigated possible illicit activities in their international adoption practices. Some have published their findings or struck up independent bodies. Canada has yet to follow suit.
CBC News has spoken to more than 20 adoptees in Canada and around the world who question the accuracy of their adoption paperwork from South Korea.
In presenting its findings, the commission published a picture of babies wrapped in blankets and strapped into seats on an airliner in 1984, with the title “Children sent abroad like luggage”.
It noted South Korean adoption agencies complied with foreign agencies’ demands to send a set number of children each month.
Postwar adoptions
The devastation of the Korean War in the early 1950s led to overseas adoption programs for biracial Korean babies fathered by Western soldiers. This quickly grew to “exporting the full-Korean infants” who were in “abundant supply,” according to internal Canadian government correspondence obtained by CBC.
The commission said the South Korean government had neglected its responsibility to provide oversight and block “misconduct by adoption agencies” such as fraudulent orphan registrations, identity tampering, and inadequate vetting of adoptive parents.
Adoption agencies did not receive proper consent for adoption, falsified documents to present babies as orphans when they had known parents, and when some babies died before they were sent overseas, other babies were sent in their names, the commission said.
“For nearly 50 years following the Korean War, the government prioritized intercountry adoption as a cost-effective alternative to strengthening domestic child welfare policies,” the commission said.
Investigating since 2020
The independent commission was set up by a revised act of parliament in 2020, with the ruling and opposition parties each naming four people to make up the eight members sitting under a chairperson named by the president.
The office of South Korea’s acting president could not be immediately reached for comment on its report.
After decades of believing they were orphans, several Korean Canadians have learned that their birth parents may still be alive. CBC’s Priscilla Ki Sun Hwang helps uncover how they got here and why some say Canada ignored evidence of botched adoption paperwork.
Besides recommending an official apology, the commission also called for a comprehensive survey on adoptees’ citizenship status and any corresponding policy measures, remedies for victims whose identities were falsified, prompt ratification of the Hague Adoption Convention, and to ensure a commitment from adoption agencies to restore adoptees’ rights.
“These violations should never have occurred,” said Park Sun-young, chairperson of the commission. “We must come together-adoptive countries and adoptees alike-to address the identity crises many adoptees face.”
