SEOUL: South Korea’s president has apologised for the first time over state-sanctioned malpractices in sending tens of thousands of children overseas for adoption.
President Lee Jae Myung acknowledged that unjust human rights violations were committed during overseas adoption procedures.
An official enquiry held the government accountable earlier this year for facilitating adoptions through fraudulent practices.
These practices included falsifying documents and switching identities of children sent abroad.
South Korea sent more than 140,000 children overseas for adoption between 1955 and 1999.
The country was for decades one of the world’s biggest exporters of children.
International adoptions began after the 1950-53 Korean War as a way to remove mixed-race children from society.
These children were born to local mothers and American GI fathers in a society that emphasised ethnic homogeneity.
Recent court rulings and investigations by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission revealed the human rights violations.
President Lee stated that the state did not fully meet its responsibilities during these adoption procedures.
He offered his heartfelt apology and words of comfort to overseas adoptees and their families.
The apology extends to birth families who have endured suffering due to these practices.
Overseas adoption became big business in South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
This generated millions of dollars for international adoption agencies during the country’s economic development.
South Korea has grown into Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse.
More than 100 children on average have still been sent abroad for adoption each year in the 2020s.
The main driver for recent adoption has been babies born to unmarried women.
Unmarried women still face ostracism in South Korea’s conservative society.
The truth commission found in March that human rights violations occurred in international adoptions.
These violations included fraudulent orphan registrations and identity tampering.
Inadequate vetting of adoptive parents was also identified as a serious problem.
The commission found numerous cases where proper legal consent procedures were not followed.
It urged the government to issue an official apology for these historical wrongs.
Former president Kim Dae-jung apologised during a meeting with overseas adoptees in 1998.
He said from the bottom of his heart that he was truly sorry for the grave wrong committed.
However, he stopped short of acknowledging the state’s responsibility for decades of malpractice. – AFP
