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List of international adoption scandals

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The following is an incomplete list of notable reports of international adoption scandals, including instances of child harvesting, child laundering, child selling, or child trafficking between countries:

20th century

Year(s)	Description
1870s-1970s	The British Home Children scheme forcibly relocated up to 150,000 children from the UK to other commonwealth countries, often without parents' knowledge, as uncovered by Margaret Humphreys in 1987. The scandal later garnered international public attention with the 2010 film Oranges and Sunshine.
1930s-1970s	Certain Mother and baby Homes in Ireland, where unmarried women were sent to give birth are reported to have forcibly separated babies from their mothers many of whom were adopted by families abroad.{{Cite web	title=THE SCANDAL OF THE “BANISHED BABIES” IN IRELAND	url=https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/76618-the-scandal-of-the-banished-babies-in-ireland.html
1949-1976	Forced adoption in the United Kingdom removed children permanently from their parents.
1960s-1980s	Highlighted by the Dutch current affairs show Zembla in 2017, purportedly 11,000 babies were fraudulently sold for adoption in the 1980s from Sri Lanka to western countries, with the use of baby farms to meet the apparent high demand.
1970s-1980s	Under South Korea's military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s, white parents in Europe, Australia and the United States adopted 200,000 majority female South Korean children, which is the biggest adoptee diaspora in the world. The European countries included Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark. This was a major human rights violation by the military dictatorship as most of the Korean girls were not real orphans and had living biological parents but were given false papers to show that they were orphans and exported to white parents for money. The Korea Welfare Services, Eastern Social Welfare Society, Korea Social Service and Holt Children’s Services were the adoption agencies involved in the trafficking of the girls. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission began investigating the scandal in 2022. The military leaders were linked to the agencies board members and they wanted to establish closer links with the west and decrease South Korea's population. South Korea's Korean Broadcasting System reported on the case of the Korean girl Kim Yu-ri who was taken away from her biological Korean parents and adopted to a French couple where she was raped and molested by the French adopted father. Across Australia, Europe and the United States, the majority female Korean adoptees asked for an investigation from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into the child trafficking scandal. The Brothers Home was one of the adoption centers that engaged in the trafficking in South Korea and the adoption agencies and South Korean government destroyed tons of documents to hide their activities and gave false identities to the children while selling them. The Brothers Home Facility sold the adoptees to Australia, Europe and North America and they also raped and used the children as slaves themselves. AP investigated adoptions from 1979-1986 at the Brothers Home and interviewed a woman, J. Hwang who was sold to be adopted in North America by the Brothers Home after she was left there by police in 1982 at age 4. Every child earned the Brothers 10 dollars per month paid by the Korea Christian Crusade adoption agency which later became Eastern Social Welfare Society. Denmark was one of the recipients of the Korean adoptees sold by Korea Social Service and Holt Children's Services. Holt Children’s Service was sued by a Korean adoptee in the US for compensation.
1991-1992	Occasionally termed "The Romanian Baby Bazaar", thousands of Romanian babies were sold under questionable circumstances to adoptive parents in western countries, particularly the United States, after the significant increase in the number of orphaned and abandoned children in the country following the policies of Ceaușescu and his subsequent overthrow in 1989.Jorge L. Carro, Regulation of Intercountry Adoption: Can the Abuses Come to an End?, 18 HASTINGS INT’L & COMP. L. REV. 121, 144 (1994)
1990s-2000s	Orphanages in Hunan, China were reported to have bought babies from traffickers with little recorded information of their provenance, before reselling them to other orphanages or families, with many being adopted internationally.
1990s-2000s	Cambodian children were adopted by families in the United States, only to reportedly find years later that the children were disguised as orphans, their birth families instead having been convinced to sell them, and that officials had been paid illegally by unethical facilitators to obfuscate this.

21st century

2020	Ugandan officials were sanctioned and 3 women were charged in the US over their alleged roles in an adoption scheme that defrauded adoptive families and bribed officials in order to procure children for adoption from Uganda and Poland.

References

Doyle-Cuche, Maria. (January 16, 2023). "I was born in a mother and baby home. The nuns wanted Mammy to sign adoption papers".
McVeigh, Karen. (September 20, 2017). "'There were a lot of baby farms': Sri Lanka to act over adoption racket claims".
Pathirana, Saroj. (March 14, 2021). "Sri Lanka adoption: The babies who were given away". BBC News.
"Adoptiebedrog 2 - Zembla - BNNVARA".
Kim, Tong-hyung. (December 8, 2022). "South Korea’s truth commission to probe foreign adoptions". AP.
(December 9, 2022). "More South Korean adoptees who were sent overseas demand probes into their cases". NPR.
(November 21, 2022). "양부의 범죄와 양모의 방관...친부모 동의도 없이 프랑스로 입양돼야 했던 김유리 씨의 삶 시사직격 KBS 방송". KBS 추적60분.
Kim, Tong-hyung. (December 9, 2022). "More South Korean adoptees demand probes into their cases". AP.
(November 9, 2019). "AP Exclusive: Abusive S. Korean facility exported children". AP.
Kim, Tong-hyung. (August 23, 2022). "Danish adoptees call for S. Korea to probe adoption issues". AP.
Kim, Tong-hyung. (June 11, 2021). "Korean adoptee films pain of mother-child separations". AP.
(May 16, 2023). "South Korean court orders agency to compensate Asian American adoptee". NBC News.
Kim, Tong-hyung. (January 24, 2019). "AP Exclusive: Adoptee deported by US sues S. Korea, agency". AP.
Hunt, Kathleen. (March 24, 1991). "The Romanian Baby Bazaar". The New York Times.
Lawson, Carol. (October 3, 1991). "Doctor Acts to Heal Romania's Wound Of Baby Trafficking". The New York Times.
Custer, Charlie. (July 25, 2013). "Kidnapped and Sold: Inside the Dark World of Child Trafficking in China".
Ewe, Koh. (April 27, 2022). "These Adoptees Were Brought to the US as Babies. Now Some Fear They Were Stolen.".
(March 24, 2005). "U.S. Families Learn Truth About Adopted Cambodian Children".
Collins, Jennifer. (August 6, 2004). "Documents Point to Bribes in Adoption Scandal - The Cambodia Daily".
Nichol, John. (March 19, 2009). "Canadian parents raise concerns". CBC News.
"U.S. adoption agencies exploit Ethiopian children – documentary". [[Ethiopian Review]].
"Dutch agency stops adoption from Ethiopia pending investigation". [[Ethiopian Review]].
(June 27, 2005). "Death prompts Samoan adoption change". [[1News.
(August 14, 2004). "Samoan adoptions raise eyebrows". [[1News.
Jorge L. Carro, Regulation of Intercountry Adoption: Can the Abuses Come to an End?, 18 HASTINGS INT’L & COMP. L. REV. 121, 144 (1994) (documenting “baby trafficking” problems in [[Peru]], [[Brazil]], [[Paraguay]], [[Colombia]], [[Honduras]], [[Sri Lanka]], and [[Romania]]).
(September 23, 2009). "16 On Trial For Selling Babies For Adoption". The Independent.
(October 29, 2007). "Profile: Zoe's Ark". BBC News.
(October 30, 2007). "Africa charity workers charged with kidnapping".
Rosenberg, Mica. (August 29, 2007). "Cleaning Up International Adoptions".
(March 11, 2008). "Guatemala Adoption Fraud May Hit U.S.".
(August 13, 2007). "'Stolen' Guatemalan children freed in raid". The Guardian.
(September 12, 2007). "IOM - Press Briefing Notes - Trafficked Children Returned Home".
Levy, Clifford J.. (April 15, 2010). "Russia Seeks Ways to Keep Its Children". [[The New York Times]].
Batty, David. (April 10, 2010). "US mother sparks outrage after sending adopted child back to Russia alone". The Guardian.
Brenckle, Lara. (March 5, 2010). "Russian officials call for suspension of adoptions to U.S. parents after death of Dillsburg-area boy".
(February 5, 2010). "U.S. missionaries charged with kidnapping in Haiti".
(February 5, 2010). "Profile: New Life Children's Refuge".
Martinez, Jennifer. (October 9, 2019). "Utah AG's Office: Maricopa County Assessor Paul D. Petersen arrested, accused of human smuggling". [[KSAZ-TV]].
(October 9, 2019). "Arizona Official Arrested In Alleged 'Baby Mill' Adoption Fraud Scheme". [[NPR]].
(August 17, 2020). "Three Individuals Charged with Arranging Adoptions from Uganda and Poland Through Bribery and Fraud".
McCool, Alice. (August 18, 2020). "Uganda to US adoption scam: judges and lawyers sanctioned". The Guardian.

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