Category: transnational adoption
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International adoptions still declining: complexity of cases weighs heavily
Small but structural decline in 2025: 70% of adopted children have special needs, process still over 50 months by Giulia Cannizzaro Link to story 9 May 2026 In the midst of a structural demographic crisis and a birth rate at an all-time low, even the intercountry adoption channel continues to lose momentum. Over the past…
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Birth Mothers Harmed by Overseas Adoption Speak Out: “Government Negligence Must Be Thoroughly Investigated”
by Bae Kyunghwan Link to story Birth Mothers Harmed by Overseas Adoption File Petition with TRCCall for Dedicated Investigative Body on Forged Documents and Human Rights Violations The Coalition for the Truth and Accountability on Overseas Adoption and Children’s Rights (hereinafter TRACE) submitted a petition for truth-finding on behalf of five birth mothers who suffered…
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AANHPI Heritage Month: Asian adoptees in Susquehanna Valley reconnect with heritage through art
Regina Ahn Link to story Asian adoptees in the Susquehanna Valley are reconnecting with their heritage and exploring their identities through creative outlets like martial arts, poetry and singing. Maya Sony Schwartzwalder reflects on her adoption story Maya Sony Schwartzwalder, who was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 1998 and adopted at 10 months old,…
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Govt Introduces Major Overseas Adoption Law Overhaul to Close Child Safety Loopholes
Mrs McKee said the reforms were necessary after serious failings were identified in the existing overseas adoption framework. Link to story The Government is introducing sweeping reforms to New Zealand’s overseas adoption laws in a move aimed at permanently closing loopholes that previously allowed children adopted overseas to enter unsafe or unsuitable homes. Associate Justice…
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50 years after Operation Babylift evacuated thousands from Vietnam, a Colorado gathering celebrates a shared past
While working to understand her history, one evacuee is archiving the paper trail of people like her, building “invisible threads” along the way. By Tracy Ross Link to story Kim Delevett and Cahn Oxelson at the East Window Gallery in Boulder read the Invisible Threads archive book, which traces the lives of children who were…
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Flanders to end international adoption by 2027
by Pauline Cohen Link to story The decision follows a succession of problematic cases that have cast serious doubt on the integrity of international adoption procedures and on the ability of authorities to verify children’s backgrounds with certainty. On April 27, Flemish Welfare Minister Caroline Gennez announced: “It is time to close this chapter.” The…
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New film hopes to reveal the untold costs of Operation Babylift
By Adam Chau Link to story Vietnamese adoptee Mike Frailey. Image courtesy “The Adoptees”. A new film in production, centered around Operation Babylift adoptee Mike Frailey, who is also co-director, centers around Frailey’s journey to America. The film, which has been in the works for seventeen years (but officially starting production two years ago) introduces…
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Haitian adoptee with disabilities returns to U.S., seeks ‘freedom’ after years of ordeal
Adopted by an American family as a child, Joie Laughlin endured years of abuse in the U.S. and at a Jamaican boarding school, which left her stranded in Haiti for three months— now back in the U.S., she hopes to reunite with her older sister and rebuild her life Link to story. By Onz Chéry
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Washington Times: South Korea relaunches truth commission with focus on adoption fraud
By Kim Tong-hyung – Associated Press Link to story. SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has relaunched a fact-finding commission into its past human rights violations, with a key focus on the extensive fraud and malfeasance that corrupted the nation’s historic foreign adoption program. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the third in the country’s history, began accepting…
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The New York Review: Torn Asunder
By Oscar Lopez Link to story (paywalled) As Guatemala and El Salvador were being torn apart by violent US-backed regimes, tens of thousands of children—many of them war orphans, others forcibly taken from their birth parents—were being adopted overseas.
Transnational /Transcultural Adoption Project 