2024-03-14 18:59:45
The deputy secretary in charge of children, youth and families, Sarah El Haïry, at the National Assembly, February 13, 2024. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “LE MONDE”
Repeatedly postponed, the report carried out by three general inspections (foreign affairs, justice and social affairs) on “illicit practices in international adoption in France” was finally made public on Wednesday March 13. It was presented to Sarah El Haïry, Minister Delegate in charge of Children, Youth and Families, and Franck Riester, Minister Delegate in charge of the Francophonie and French people abroad, in the presence of associations of people adopted.
This work had a triple objective, stated in a mission letter on November 7, 2022: identify illicit practices that may have taken place in the past to prevent them from happening again, examine the relevance and reliability of the current system and provide a response to the demands of adopted people and civil society.
More than 120,000 French people have been adopted abroad since the 1960s, with a peak of 4,079 children adopted in France in 2004, in continuous decline since then to reach 232 adoptions in 2022. The mission does not, however, say how many of these adoptions were marred by irregularities.
State shortcomings
Falsification of files, theft of children from the maternity ward, “production of children” for the adoption system… At the end of a year of work, which led them to interview 179 people, the inspectors presented an inventory in 118 pages of practices and “significant deviations” which accompanied the growth of international adoption. “The existence of illicit practices, of a systemic nature, which have affected international adoption in many countries and for a long period is today a proven fact”underlines the report.
The observation is nothing new: the State’s shortcomings in controlling international adoptions were already documented by research carried out by historians Fabio Macedo and Yves Denéchère. Published in February 2023, their study highlighted the numerous frauds that took place during adoptions made individually, but also with the help of associations approved by the Quai d’Orsay, which are supposed to protect candidates from these irregularities.
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The study does not provide any new information, to the great regret of the stakeholders concerned. “Yet a lot of work remains to be done on establishing the facts, our study was only preparatory,” insists Yves Denéchère, professor of history at the University of Angers.
The mission sets out twenty-eight recommendations, many of which relate to the modalities of future adoptions. On those of the past, faced with the difficulties of legal redress, the mission recommends the creation of an independent commission, “as has been done in other contexts, particularly for the treatment of sexual abuse in the Church”.
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