Government announces commission of inquiry into illegal intercountry adoptions

After years of silence, of unspoken words, even of lies, this is a victory for the thousands of children illegally adopted in France. During a public session in the Senate, Adrien Taquet, Secretary of State for Children and Families to the Minister of Solidarity and Health, announced the upcoming holding of a commission of inquiry into adoptions illicit “on the model of that which had been devoted to the children of Reunion of the Creuse”. It will be carried out with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that of Justice and should start “in the first three months of 2022”.

In June, two associations of adopted children and adoptive parents, the Voice of Adopted and Enfance et Familles d’Adoption (EFA) had sent a referral letter to the Minister of Solidarity and Health, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as than the Minister of Justice, all three in charge of international adoption, to demand the holding of this commission of inquiry. Between 1973 and 2006, when international adoptions were still very poorly supervised, many children were indeed adopted in unclear conditions, or even stolen from their parents. This is particularly the case of Céline Giraud, the founder of the association La Voix des Adoptés and author of the book “I was stolen from my parents”, released by Flammarion editions in 2007.

Born in 1980 in Peru, she was taken from her mother by a Peruvian charity that worked directly with one of the Authorized Adoption Bodies (OAA) – private associations controlled by public authorities – the most important in the country. era. This association had made her mother believe that she was going to place her child in a nursery while she was in a situation where she was again. “They took charge of all medical examinations during pregnancy and hospitalization for childbirth, to the point that my mother, in a precarious situation, nicknamed them ‘the guardian angels’. She even called me Doris in tribute to one of the girls in the family called Dora “, tells, bitter, Céline Giraud at LCI.

“Once my mother signed, they disappeared with me into the wild when I was only three days old”. She was adopted 13 days later by a French couple. “My parents remember that everything had to go very quickly. With hindsight, we understand why: the biological mother should not find out anything before the adoption was finalized”, explains the founder of the Adopted Voice.

Céline Giraud will not finally discover the truth until she is 23 years old, when she wanted to start a simple research on her origins. “In my file, it was written that my mother had had me very young, that I was her first child and that she was in great difficulty. I wanted to find her to reassure her, to tell her that I was fine. And even thank her for allowing me to live in a great family where I had wanted for nothing “, she says, saying that she was able to find her thanks to the father of a friend, a former Peruvian policeman.

If the members of the association were sentenced four years after his kidnapping and those of other children to 25 years in prison, the French families were never informed of the situation by the OAA.

If Céline Giraud was stolen from her mother in this way, illicit adoptions could have taken, from 1973 to 2006, many other forms. As evidenced by the stories of adopted children who contacted his association, or who have been in the media in recent years. “There is for example the basic method: the one where one announces to a mother who gives birth that her baby is dead. The baby is declared dead in the civil registry, then handed over for international adoption” she explains, citing the example of Coline Fanon, who is preparing to publish her story with Kennes editions in November, or the Lyon singer Carmen, who also tells her story in a book, The Song of the Goat, published by Flammarion editions in 2020.

In Mali, another method seems to have been favored, according to media reports from several adopted children. Last year, nine men and women from this country and adopted in France at the end of the 80s lodged a complaint against the association which played the intermediary. According to them, their biological parents, in Mali, would never have given their consent to their adoption in France, presented as temporary. Thirty years later, these children had still not returned, convinced that their parents had abandoned them for good.

If the number of victims of these illicit adoptions is not known, Céline Giraud believes that they can be counted, in France, “probably” in thousands. “Today, we have no way of knowing, but it is clear that it does not count in ten, because within the Voice of the Adopted, we are more than ten to be concerned. that would surprise me too “, she said, citing a survey carried out last May by her association: “Of the 203 people who responded, nearly a third (29%) ticked the box ‘I am sure I have been the victim of an illicit adoption’ or ‘I have questions that question me'”.

In several European countries and in North America, adoptees have already united to denounce the practices of which they have been victims. The Swiss Confederation (CH) apologized in December 2020 following the publication of a report by the federal administration acknowledging serious irregularities on the part of the cantonal and federal authorities during the adoption of 900 children in from Sri Lanka between 1973 and 1997.

The Netherlands suspended all international adoptions in February following the publication of a public report. Following a commission of inquiry set up in 2018, it reveals that the Dutch government has not taken the necessary measures to put an end to the abuse of adoption procedures in 5 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia , Indonesia and Sri Lanka) between 1973 and 1998. Apologies to adopted children were also made on behalf of the government.

Following these encouraging signals, the collective Recognition of illicit adoptions in France (Raif) petitioned the National Assembly in February to request a commission of inquiry. It collected 35,000 signatures. Motivated by this enthusiasm, the Voix des Adoptés and Enfance et Familles d’Adoption (EFA) therefore united to make their voices heard on the subject and demand the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry. “This commission will take the form of a study on intercountry adoptions that were the subject of procedures considered de facto flawed before the end of 2006”, they write in a press release, which also calls for official recognition of the illegal nature of these procedures and of the victim status of these children.

The two associations would also like a support system to be put in place for all adopted children who start researching their origins. “This support would be useful whether for administrative, legal or psychological support”, explains the president of the Voix des Adoptés association, Colin Cadier. “We need a minimum of resources since these supports generate a lot of questions. Especially when the files, at the time, were not always complete. The documents are found gradually or may have been falsified”, he continues. “Personally, for example, I had to pay a lawyer to access the medical file of the Brazilian maternity hospital where I was born”, he says. “Me, I was born during this armed conflict and the documents are not clear. They were drawn up in a very summary way”, reports for its part the vice-president of the association, Julia Noblanc, which was adopted in Guatemala in full armed conflict, in the Eighties.

According to a diplomatic source at LCI, the International Adoption Mission, which reports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is “very willing” to collaborate with the commission of inquiry.