The Netherlands says it is freezing international adoptions after a government commission discovered children had been stolen or bought from their parents.
In cases going back to the 1960s, the commission found abuses such as “the falsification of documents, the abuse of poverty among the birth mothers and the abandonment of children for payment or through coercion.”
The commission was formed as adopted adults found their documents had been either lost or fake or that their adoption was illegal.
The commission reviewed cases from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Brazil, and Colombia between 1967 and 1998. However, it found that the abuse had been going on before and after this time period.
Rights minister Sander Dekker said he "understood that this will be painful for some people but let us not forget ... we are protecting children and their biological parents."
Dekker said the job falls on the next administration to decide whether or not to renew an international adoption process without abuses.
