Anna reached adulthood believing she was an orphan. Then the truth came out.
Australia's adoption partner in South Korea falsified documents while sending thousands of children to Australia, a Background Briefing investigation has found.
The allegations add to a growing number of harrowing stories internationally in what has become a global adoption scandal. It's what she calls a "treasure trove" of documents that she held onto to try to understand why she was given up for adoption. "We used to say as social workers working in the department, these are remarkably similar ," Josie says.
As late as 2013, the agency's paperwork continued to raise suspicions, with one Australian social worker saying they also felt it "wasn't appropriate to question … because of the shame factor".The adoption workers' suspicions have now been confirmed. Min Ja says that ESWS created "real documents in Korean" and "fake documents in English" for each child.According to Min Ja, this was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the agency's tactics to send large numbers of children overseas.
Min Ja says that while she knew what ESWS was doing was wrong, she felt if the agency didn't accept the children then they might end up being abandoned. From her records, she estimates her Australian adoptive parents paid around $US4,500 in adoption costs in 1987. Other agencies were charging $US5,000 per child at the time — more than $21,000 today."I believe that I was human trafficked."Anna is among more than 200,000 children, mostly girls, who have been adopted from South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953, making what's believed to be the world's largest diaspora of adoptees.
Lynelle Long received a personal apology from the government for her adoption experience — now, she wants the same for others.She would also like to see a formal apology like the government issued to Australian mothers subjected to forced adoption.
South Korea Eastern Social Welfare Society International Adoption Adopting A Child Seoul Korean War Human Rights Adoptee Rights
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