A shock report, published earlier this week, lifts the veil on massive and recurring illicit practices in international adoptions in France, which have persisted in some twenty countries for more than thirty years.
The “Historical study on the illicit practices of international adoption in France”, published by historians Fabio Macedo and Yves Denéchère, attached to the University of Angers, shows the recurrence of serious acts which have marred the process of adopting foreign children since the 1960s.
The report, available online, could shed light on the work of the interministerial inspection mission responsible for shedding light on these illicit practices, writes the University of Angers.
The study shows that international adoption in France concerned many more children than the statistics regularly put forward, reveals Yves Denéchère, adding that it takes 20 to 25% more.
Most of these children entered without an adoption visa. And it is in this gap that gray areas may exist, notes the co-author of the report, arguing that “the actors of international adoption, including institutions, could not ignore it”, believes Mr. Denéchère.
If “many adoptions were made in the rules”, the archives show that “reports of illicit practices, going as far as misdemeanors and crimes, are very numerous, recurring, that they affect a large number of countries and many intermediaries”, observes, for his part, Fabio Macedo.
The two researchers question “the weight of money, both in legal and illegal practices, and the commercialization that accompanies international adoption”.
“The countries of origin are poor countries, failed states where corruption reigns. From the moment there is money, it falsifies everything. A real market is developing, with suppliers, intermediaries… And when demand is very strong, this creates supply. Even when there are not many abandoned children, we find some”, note the two researchers, with whom the Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed an agreement in December 2021 to allow the development of this independent research report.
For the daily Le Monde, which echoed the results of the study, it is a Pandora’s box that has “opened” which draws up an “even more chilling” inventory.
“Child trafficking” and “irregular adoptions” in Chile, Paraguay and Peru, “monthly allowance” offered to biological parents in exchange for their child in India, “corruption and fraud of documents” in Cambodia, “abductions”, “manufacture of false orphans” and forced abandonment “of newborns by very young mothers” to respond to “the request of French adoptive parents” in Madagascar…, so many irregularities pointed out by the report drawn up from 9,600 pages archives taken from the diplomatic funds of the State, most of them classified, notes the newspaper.
The study establishes that many illicit adoptions have been carried out in more than twenty countries since 1979, despite the incessant alerts sent by the consular services to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The 150-page report of this study reveals that adoptions accompanied by associations authorized by the Quai d’Orsay, supposed to protect candidates from these irregularities, have also experienced their share of fraud. Fifteen organizations authorized for adoption (OAA) are implicated in the report. Five of them are still today approved by the State, the daily reports.