Denmark ends international adoptions

COPENHAGEN: Danes will no longer be able to adopt children from abroad after the country's only adoption agency said on Tuesday it was ceasing operations amid reports of irregularities.

The Danish International Adoption (DIA) agency said in a statement it was “initiating a controlled wind-up of its activities as a facilitator of international adoptions”.

The announcement came after Denmark´s social affairs ministry suspended adoptions from the six countries with which DIA currently cooperates due to irregularities involving employment regulations.

The six countries are the Czech Republic, India, the Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan and Thailand.

DIA, which halted adoptions from Madagascar last year amid concerns over possible fraud, said Tuesday it had no choice but to shut down.

“International adoption can no longer, under the current conditions in Denmark, be run by an NGO like ours,” DIA said.

It said it was currently handling 36 adoption procedures, and provided no details about what would happen to those cases.

International adoptions have in recent years plunged more than ten-fold in Denmark since 2010, when 418 were registered.

Meanwhile in Norway, the Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir) in December put an end to all adoptions from the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand, after several cases of illegal adoptions emerged in the media.

And as of January, no new adoption procedures from South Korea are allowed.

Bufdir had recommended a two-year freeze on all international adoptions pending the outcome of an investigation, but the government ruled that out and asked Bufdir to submit an evaluation as soon as possible.