The Truth Committee discovers that South Korea committed violations of rights while adopting abroad

The Truth Committee said on Wednesday that South Korea’s adoption agencies sent children abroad, such as “luggage” for decades, and described some orphans when they had parents and sent alternative children when the children died before they went abroad.

After a two -year investigation, the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in South Korea, which was enabled by the parliament in the country, recommended the government, which is offering an official apology, conducting follow -up investigations and setting relief measures for the victims.

She found human rights violations in cases of at least 56 adopters of a petition presented by 367 adopters who were sent abroad between 1964 and 1999 to 11 countries, including the United States, France, Denmark and Sweden.

In the past few years, many European countries have achieved illegal activities in international adoption practices. Some have published their results or hit independent bodies. Canada has not followed its example.

CBC News spoke to more than 20 adopted in Canada and around the world from The question about the accuracy of their adoption papers From South Korea.

In presenting the results, the committee published a picture of children wrapped in blankets and linked to seats on a plane in 1984, with the title “Children who sent abroad like luggage”.

She pointed out that the adoption agencies in South Korea complied with the demands of foreign agencies to send a specific number of children every month.

Adopting post -war

The destruction of the Korean war in the early fifties of the last century led to adoption programs abroad for Korean children with Western soldiers. This quickly grew to “exporting the Kamorian infants” who were in “abundant supplies”, according to the Canadian government’s internal correspondence obtained by CBC.

The committee said that the South Korean government neglected its responsibility for providing supervision and granting “misconduct by adoption agencies” such as fraudulent orphan records, tampering with identity, and insufficient parents with adoption.

The committee said that the adoption agencies did not receive appropriate approval of the adoption, and the fake documents to present children as orphans when they knew parents, and when some children died before sending them abroad, other children were sent in their names.

“For nearly 50 years after the Korean War, the government gave priority to adoption between the country as an effective cost of cost to enhance local child care policies,” the committee said.

Investigation since 2020

The independent committee was established by a revised parliament law in 2020, where both the ruling and opposition parties nominated four people to compensate the eight members sitting under a president named the president.

The Acting President’s office in South Korea cannot be reached immediately to comment on his report.

In addition to recommending an official apology, the committee also called for a comprehensive survey on the state of the nationality of the adopters, any corresponding political measures, treatments for the victims whose identities were forged, immediate ratification of the Hague Accreditation Agreement, and to ensure a commitment from adoption agencies to restore the rights of adoptions.

“These violations should never occur,” said Park Sun Young, Chairman of the Committee. “We must meet together and adopt both and adopt to address the identity crises faced by many adopters.”