Falsification of documents, lost files, victims of child trafficking: a group of people adopted abroad is asking the French government for an investigation to shed light on “
illegal practices
” observed during international adoptions.
"
We, adopted persons and French adoptive parents, ask the government and parliamentarians to set up a commission of inquiry so that the illegal practices in international adoption since the 1970s are noted
", write the members of this recent collective for the “Recognition of illicit adoptions in France” (Raif) in a petition addressed to the National Assembly and published on the change.org site.
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In recent years, several children adopted in France, now adults, have testified in books or in the media of difficulties in accessing their origins, or even of fraudulent procedures during their adoption.
This is the case of singer Carmen Maria Vega, adopted at the age of nine months, who recently testified to AFP to have discovered during a trip to Guatemala in search of her biological mother whom she was a stolen child.
He is two years old, it is a vast traffic for adoption in Sri Lanka which had been revealed, concerning several French families.
For Emmanuelle Hébert, one of the collective's spokespersons, “
these stories are not isolated cases.
They are part of a system and there was probably laxity
”on the part of France, she denounces.
The opening of an investigation could allow, according to her, "
to establish statistics and to have a follow-up of all the organizations authorized for the adoption
" (OAA), of the private associations whose authorization is delivered by the International adoption mission (MAI), dependent on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Asked by AFP, the latter did not follow up.
Number of adoptions divided by ten in 15 years
Emmanuelle Hébert, born in India, arrived at Orly airport in 1977, aged two and a half, to be adopted by a French family through one of these associations.
While her orphanage record mentioned that her mother died soon after her birth and that her father had abandoned her, she discovered in 2008 during a trip in search of her roots that her mother was alive and meet.
But eleven years later, the orphanage "
tells her a new story with another mother, she died
".
“
After 20 years of research, three trips to India, I still don't know what is right and wrong.
It's really hard to build,
”testifies the forty-something who has not found an official act of abandonment in her file.
Recently, the Netherlands and Switzerland have recognized “illegal practices” during adoptions abroad and have expressed regret.
On February 8, the Dutch government even suspended international adoptions after the findings of the investigation.
Faced with the small number of children to be adopted in France, many families applying for adoption have been looking abroad for decades.
In 15 years, the number of these adoptions has been divided by ten.
In 2019, 421 children were adopted abroad against more than 4,000 in 2005, according to official figures.
"
Irregular or illegal
files
are not the majority but we are aware of more and more cases
", notes Anne Royal, president of the association Children and Adoption Families (EFA), which has more than 5,000 members.
“
It is often during the original research that we realize that we have been the subject of an illegal adoption.
It's a crash in the life of everyone, adoptees, their adoptive and biological family,
”continues Anne Royal, who supports the collective's approach.
“
We have to face the past and the responsibility of each person.
It is a right to know the reality of one's origins
”.
Contacted by AFP, the office of the Secretary of State for Children, Adrien Taquet, said it was ready to "
receive very soon
" the collective.
