South Korea, the world's "baby exporter," fabricated birth records, falsely reported children as abandoned, and even failed to conduct proper safety checks on adoptive parents in its frenzy to send children overseas for adoption, revealed a long-awaited investigation released on Wednesday (Mar 26).  

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Dark history of South Korea's adoptions

As per authorities, since the 1950s, after World War II and the Korean War, over 200,000 South Korean children have been adopted abroad.

This mass adoption wave, initially driven by postwar poverty, later became a lucrative adoption industry and has long been plagued by allegations of malpractice. Adopted South Korean children, now adults, scattered around the world, have accused adoption agencies of coercion—some claiming they were forcibly taken from their mothers.

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Report findings

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's findings, released on Wednesday, shed light on the dark history of the country's adoption industry. Of the first 100 cases, of the total 367 petitions, reviewed by the commission, 56 were confirmed as "victims" of government negligence.

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Sharing the findings, Commissioner Lee Sang-hoon at a press conference said that part of the problem was that adoptions were almost entirely carried out by private agencies. Many of these adoption agencies operated with little to no government oversight, relying on donations—creating a system that encouraged illegal adoptions.

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"When adoption agencies depend on donations from adoptive parents, they are pressured to continue sending children abroad to sustain their operations. This structure increases the risk of illegal adoptions," he said, as quoted by CNN.

The investigation found widespread evidence of forged adoption records, including "deliberate identity substitution" and inaccurate reports of parental abandonment. Furthermore, the report suggests a lack of parental consent for adoption in many cases.

It also found that the adoption process was riddled with failures, including inadequate screening of adoptive parents and cases where guardians neglected the children. Some foreign adoptive parents were reportedly pressured into paying additional fees to secure a child.  

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Calls for justice  

The investigation is set to conclude in May. The fresh revelations add to growing evidence of systemic malpractice and coercion in what has been described as the mass exportation of South Korean children to meet foreign demand.  

The commission has recommended an official government apology, a full survey of adoptees' citizenship statuses, and remedies for those whose identities were falsified.  

(With inputs from agencies)