A landmark South Korean inquiry last week found systemic fraud and malpractice in the program, including the falsification of adoption papers and “mass exportation of children to meet demand” with minimal procedural oversight.
The South Korean investigation, which issued preliminary findings last week, has triggered a painful reckoning for some Australian Korean adoptees who are confronting new questions about their identities and embarking on searches for birth families, while also pushing for a federal parliamentary inquiry to determine the scale of the scandal in Australia.
ESWS is one of four adoption major agencies being investigated by the South Korean government-appointed Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
In a set of preliminary findings last week, the commission confirmed human rights violations in 56 of the 367 complaints lodged by adoptees from 11 countries and recommended an official state apology be given.
The inquiry broadly found that children were falsely documented as orphans when they had known parents, while in other cases authorities failed to secure proper consent from biological parents for adoptions, or adequately screen adoptive parents.
Source: 12ft