South Korean governments committed numerous human rights violations over decades in a controversial programme that sent at least 170,000 children and babies abroad for adoption, a landmark inquiry has found.
It said the government’s lack of oversight enabled the “mass exportation of children” by private agencies that were driven by profit, and found examples of fraud, falsified records and coercion.
Since the 1950s, South Korea has sent more children abroad for adoption than any other country, with most sent to Western countries.
South Korea has sinced moved to tighten its adoption processes, but some adoptees and their biological parents say they are still haunted by what they went through. The BBC spoke to one woman who claimed her adoptive parents “took better care of the dog than they ever did of me”.
“This is a shameful part of our history,” said Park Sun-young, the chairperson of the commission, at a press briefing.
“While many adoptees were fortunate to grow up in loving families, others suffered great hardship and trauma due to flawed adoption processes. Even today, many continue to face challenges.”
The report was released on Wednesday by the independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission following an investigation that began in 2022.
Since then, 367 adoptees – all of which were sent overseas between 1964 and 1999 – had filed petitions alleging fradulent practices in their adoption process.
Some 100 petitions have been analysed so far, of whom 56 adoptees were recognised as victims of human rights violations. The commission is still investigating other cases, with the inquiry set to end in May.
In the aftermath of the Korean war, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world and few families were keen on adopting children.
South Korea’s government then began a transnational adoption programme handled by private agencies, which were given significant powers through special adoption laws.
But there was a “systemic failure in oversight and management”, which led to numerous lapses committed by these agencies, according to the report.
The report noted that foreign agencies had demanded a set number of children every month and Korean agencies complied, “facilitating large-scale intercountry adoptions with minimal procedural oversight”.
With no government regulation on fees, the Korean agencies charged large amounts and demanded “donations”, which turned adoptions into “a profit-driven industry”, according to the report.
Other lapses include adoptions conducted without proper consent from birth mothers and inadequate screening of adoptive parents.
The agencies also fabricated reports that made children appear as if they were abandoned and put up for adoption; and intentionally gave children wrong identities.
Because many adoptees had false identities listed in their paperwork, they now struggle to obtain information about their birth families and are left with inadequate legal protection, the report noted.
The commission has recommended the government deliver an official apology, and to comply with international standards on transnational adoptions.
‘I have had a painful and miserable life’
South Korea has moved to tighten its adoption processes in recent years. In 2023, it passed a law ensuring that all overseas adoptions would be handled by a government ministry instead of private agencies, which is due to come into effect by July.
The South Korean government has yet to respond to Wednesday’s report.
Inger-Tone Ueland Shin, 60, was one of the petitioners whose cases were investigated by the commission. She was adopted by a Norwegian couple when she was 13 – and discovered later on that her adoption was illegal.
The couple, who were in their 50s at the time, had initially applied to adopt but were rejected by Norwegian authorities as they were too old.
They then travelled to South Korea and visited an orphanage, where they selected Inger-Tone and took her with them to Norway.
The couple only submitted an adoption application to Norwegian authorities years later. The authorities approved it, despite acknowledging the illegality of Inger-Tone’s situation, because they determined that by then she had “no connection to Korea anymore”.
Inger-Tone told the BBC she had great difficulty adjusting to life in Norway, and also alleged her adoptive father sexually abused her.
“They took better care of the dog than they ever did of me,” she said. “It was so painful. I wasn’t able to talk or express myself, other than crying at night”.
In 2022, she successfully sued her local government in Norway and was awarded damages. She also received her local government’s acknowledgment that it was liable for “failing to supervise” her adoptive home.
Her adoptive parents have since died.
“They have never spent time in prison for what they’ve done to me. They criminally picked up a child outside of the country… nobody has taken responsibility for what they did to me,” she said.
