The recommendation, made public follows an extensive investigation into Sweden’s historical adoption practices, revealing that children were systematically taken from countries including Sri Lanka, Colombia, Poland, China and South Korea under dubious or entirely illegal circumstances
In a damning revelation that may reverberate across the international adoption community, a Swedish government-appointed commission has recommended a complete halt to international adoptions, following the exposure of widespread abuse, fraud, and child trafficking stretching back over five decades.
The recommendation, made public follows an extensive investigation into Sweden’s historical adoption practices, revealing that children were systematically taken from countries including Sri Lanka, Colombia, Poland, China and South Korea under dubious or entirely illegal circumstances.
Sweden now joins a growing list of countries—including the Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland—that are confronting long-ignored ethical violations surrounding international adoption. The commission’s findings were delivered to Minister of Social Services, Camilla Waltersson Grönvall, who will now consider the next steps for Sweden’s adoption framework.
The commission was established in 2021 in response to a groundbreaking investigation by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, which exposed the depth of irregularities within Sweden’s international adoption system. The inquiry was chaired by Anna Singer, a legal expert and professor, who spoke at a press conference to announce the findings.
“The assignment was to investigate whether there had been irregularities that Swedish actors knew about, could have acted upon, and actually did act upon,” said Singer. “By actors, we mean everyone involved in international adoption activities—including the government, supervisory authorities, adoption organisations, municipalities and courts. The conclusion is unambiguous: there have been irregularities in the international adoptions to Sweden.”
The commission uncovered confirmed cases of child trafficking in every decade from the 1970s through the 2000s. Singer highlighted that these violations were not isolated but part of a broader, systematic failure across institutions.
In addition to recommending a suspension of all international adoptions, the commission called on the Swedish government to issue a formal public apology to adoptees and their families.
“A public apology is important not only for those directly affected,” said Singer, “but also to raise awareness of the violations committed. There’s a tendency in society to downplay the existence and gravity of such abuses.”
This apology, according to the commission, should serve as both an acknowledgment of state failure and a step towards justice for adoptees who have suffered due to fraudulent adoption processes.
The Swedish commission’s findings resonate with those from other countries. Last year, an Associated Press and Frontline (PBS) investigation uncovered similar abuses in South Korea’s overseas adoption programme. At its peak during the 1970s and 1980s, the South Korean adoption system exported thousands of children annually to the West, including to Sweden, the United States, France and Denmark.
The teams interviewed over 80 adoptees across Europe, Australia and the United States and examined thousands of pages of documentation. Their research revealed systemic patterns of child abduction, falsified documents, switched identities, and instances in which parents were falsely informed that their newborns were either gravely ill or had died—only to find out years later that their children had been adopted by foreign families.
This model, developed in South Korea in the aftermath of the Korean War, became the blueprint for international adoptions globally. But it is now increasingly scrutinised for fostering secrecy, enabling exploitation, and failing to protect children and birth families.
The Swedish inquiry follows a similar trajectory to those already undertaken elsewhere. The Netherlands decided in 2023 to halt all new international adoptions after finding evidence of exploitation and child trafficking. Denmark’s only authorised international adoption agency ceased operations, and the Swiss government issued a public apology for failing to prevent illegal adoptions in previous decades. France also released a starkly critical assessment of its own international adoption practices, acknowledging deep systemic flaws.
South Korea itself, which sent approximately 200,000 children abroad for adoption over the past 60 years—half of them to the United States—has faced mounting pressure from adoptee advocacy groups demanding accountability, transparency, and access to personal records.
Sweden, once one of the largest European recipients of children from South Korea with nearly 10,000 adoptions since the 1960s, is now at the heart of a European reckoning.
As governments across the world reckon with the dark legacy of international adoptions, Sweden’s next move will be closely watched. The commission’s recommendations may well spell the end of an era, challenging the belief that international adoption is always a humanitarian act.
While there is no doubt that many adoptees have found loving families abroad, the evidence increasingly points to a trade in children that, for decades, operated with insufficient oversight and accountability.
If the Swedish government follows through on the recommendations, it could set a powerful precedent for ethical reform—not only within its own borders but across the global adoption system. For now, adoptees and their families await not just words of contrition but meaningful actions that acknowledge their pain and protect future generations from similar harm.
