A convention set up to help adopted Sri Lankans
Illegal adoptions took place in Sri Lanka from the 1970s to the 1990s, particularly from Swiss families. Those affected received support from the authorities on Monday.
Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter and President of the Conference of Cantonal Directors of Justice and Police Fredy Fässler stamped their stamp on Monday in Bern alongside that of Sarah Ineichen, president of the organization.
KEYSTONE/Peter Klaunzer
Cantons and Confederation signed an agreement on Monday with the organization Back to the Roots, active in supporting people adopted in Sri Lanka in the 70s to 90s. The main objective is to help these people handed over to Swiss families to find their origins.
This sum, calculated on actual costs, should directly benefit the several hundred people concerned. They can resort on their own initiative to Back to the Roots, which supports them throughout the research procedure and ensures relations with the authorities, write the three signatories in a joint press release.
881 adoptions
This is a pilot project, as part of a partnership with Sri Lanka, which began retroactively to January 1 of this year and will end at the end of 2024. Following a postulate, the Council commissioned a report which concluded, at the end of 2020, that, despite the early existence of clear indications of the illegal practices of intermediaries with a view to adoption in Sri Lanka, the Confederation and the cantons have been slow to take measures to put an end to to these dysfunctions.
Commissioned for this report, a historical study at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) identified 881 adoptions granted between 1973 and 1997. Adopted Sri Lankans were most often babies a few weeks old or young children . They came from “baby farms”, where white men were also used to produce children with the lightest skin possible.
5,000 to 15,000 francs per child
Swiss parents paid between 5,000 and 15,000 francs for a child. Sri Lankan mothers received only a few dollars or even a thermos flask. Intermediaries in Sri Lanka, including female lawyers, were highly paid.
After acknowledging the findings of the report, the government commissioned the ZHAW to conduct further research on adoptions from ten other countries. This inventory should make it possible to detect any signs of systematic irregularities. The results will probably be published before the end of the year, specify the signatories of the press release.
On behalf of the FDJP, a group of experts is also scrutinizing the current system to assess whether there are still shortcomings in the organisation, skills and procedures in the field of adoption. If the analysis were to reveal flaws, the Federal Council would propose legislative amendments to Parliament.
11,000 Sri Lankan children in Europe
A UN committee also asked Switzerland a year ago for in-depth investigations into illegal adoptions in Sri Lanka from the 1970s to the 1990s. Bern was to verify whether enforced disappearances were organized and guarantee reparations to the victims. . The independent experts of the Committee against enforced disappearances, who do not speak on behalf of the UN, welcomed the regrets of the Federal Council in December 2020.
The UN committee’s investigation indicated that nearly 11,000 Sri Lankan children were supplied to parents in various European countries as part of an organized, often illegal, international trade.
Published: 05.16.2022, 8:30 p.m.
You found an error?Please let us know.