By hannover-web.com As Robert Calabretta’s flight drew closer to Seoul, tears of joy streamed down his face, marking a long-awaited reunion decades in the making. This trip was monumental; it was the first time he would meet his biological parents after being adopted at the tender age of three. For Robert, the belief that his parents had abandoned him fueled a lifetime of questions about his origins. However, about five years ago, he reconnected with his birth parents and uncovered the shocking truth: his adoption documents had been forged. In 1986, during a serious illness, his parents were led to believe that their son was gravely ill and unlikely to survive, and they were told that he had died.
When Robert finally embraced his biological father, emotion overtook them both. His father wept openly, expressing deep sorrow, struggling to comprehend how Robert had endured in a world that had been so unkind.
In a poignant moment, Robert held close the one tangible link to his past—a photograph from his birth. This image symbolized a life from which he had been so long separated.
Recent reports reveal that Robert is one of the many victims of South Korea’s extensive international adoption fraud, a scandal that has torn generations of children away from their biological families.
Increasingly, individuals like Robert are stepping forward to share their experiences, illuminating the often-hidden flaws in the adoption system which seemed more focused on providing children for eager adoptive parents than on the welfare of those children and their families. Collaborations between intermediaries and government entities facilitated the forced placement of many children into adoption over the years.
An investigative report by the Associated Press estimates that approximately 200,000 children have been adopted internationally with the cooperation of the South Korean government, Western nations, and various adoption agencies. Despite longstanding evidence of illegal practices, the issues continue to persist. Many adopted individuals, upon reaching adulthood, have attempted to trace their roots, only to uncover stark discrepancies between their adoption stories and the troubling realities of their past.
The South Korean adoption scandal has reverberated throughout the global adoption community, prompting investigations in European countries and a temporary halt on international adoptions. In response to pressure from adopted individuals, the South Korean government has agreed to establish a fact-finding mission, which has already received hundreds of complaints.
In a joint investigation between the Associated Press and PBS’s Frontline, more than 80 victims adopted to the U.S., Australia, and six European nations were interviewed, alongside their families, staff from adoption agencies, humanitarian workers, and government officials. The investigation generated over 100 requests for documents, yielding thousands of pages, including previously unreleased confidential court documents, government records, and adoption papers.
Among the troubling cases highlighted in the Associated Press report, some children were reported to have been kidnapped directly from the streets and subsequently placed for international adoption. Many South Korean parents were misled into thinking their newborns had either died or were critically ill, when in fact their children had been forcibly taken from them. Forged documents created false identities for these children, obscuring their true origins. The chaotic state of record-keeping led to situations where some reunions revealed no biological relations at all.
