The Netherlands will no longer allow its citizens to adopt children from abroad, according to an announcement made on Tuesday by the Dutch Minister for Legal Protection, Franc Weerwind.
Franc Weerwind (pictured) clarified that ongoing inter-country adoption processes will be allowed to continue for the time being, Reuters has reported.
In the past fifty years, Dutch parents have adopted approximately 40,000 children from 80 different countries. However, the number of international adoptions has significantly declined in recent years.
In 2019, there were only 145 international adoptions, and this number further decreased to 70 in 2020, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These statistics were reported by the independent Dutch Youth Institute think tank.
A temporary freeze on intercountry adoptions was already in place from February 2021 to November 2022, implemented by the Dutch government. This suspension came amid growing concerns and scrutiny over the country’s adoption practices.
The increased attention to adoption practices in the Netherlands was partly driven by numerous adult adoptees who began investigating their origins.
Many discovered that their birth documents had been forged or were missing, and in some cases, that their adoptions had been conducted illegally.
These findings have prompted a reevaluation of the ethical and legal frameworks governing international adoptions in the country.
Image: Max Joling – wikiportret.nl, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54329332
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