South Korea is facing scandals from decades ago. A state commission found that hundreds of children adopted to Western countries between 1960 and 1990 were subjected to fraud. The commission’s chair held the governments of that time responsible for the irregularities.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Korea reviewed complaints from 367 people adopted to the U.S. and Australia.

After an investigation lasting about 3 years, it was revealed that the governments of the time were directly responsible for the “fraud, irregularities, and abuses” in adoption programs.

CHILDREN MISREPRESENTED AS ORPHANS

It emerged that South Korean children who had mothers were misrepresented as orphans and their identity information and status were distorted by adoption agencies deliberately.

It was also found that South Korean governments failed to regulate and penalize these agencies that were bringing in “income of two thousand dollars per baby.”

ADOPTED IN EUROPE AND THE U.S.

Around 200,000 children in South Korea, mostly in the 1970s-1980s, were adopted by families in Europe and the U.S.

The administrations of the time were accused of initiating adoption processes to “deport children of disabled and unmarried mothers.”

CALL FOR APOLOGIES

As the scandal is officially acknowledged for the first time in the country’s history, the commission called on the government to officially apologize.

The commission chair used the term “Children were sent abroad like suitcases” in reference to the situation.