By Ebad Ahmed
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AA) - The Danish Embassy in Lebanon and the Foreign Ministry have been linked to controversial adoption practices in the 1980s, involving Lebanese children taken to Denmark, the state news broadcaster reported Friday.
DR said the connection surfaced through correspondence between the Danish adoption agency, AC Children's Aid, and high-ranking embassy officials.
The AC Children's Aid used bribes, including donations, to facilitate adoptions from Lebanon, according to a new DR podcast series -- False Memories. In some cases, experts allege, children were outright trafficked.
Documents reveal that the Danish Embassy in Beirut facilitated AC Children's Aid in bringing donations into Lebanon duty-free. Additionally, a senior embassy official advised the agency on paying religious courts to falsify documents, enabling adoptions to proceed.
In recent years, numerous reports have highlighted unethical adoption practices involving children taken to Denmark.
DR exposed cases where adoptees from South Korea and India arrived with falsified documents and fabricated histories, sometimes with the awareness of Danish adoption agencies.
The findings have prompted opposition parties to demand Social Affairs and Housing Minister Sophie Haestorp Andersen take action. They want a legal investigation to assign responsibility for the adoption scandals. Although a historical review of adoption practices is underway, the government has so far resisted expanding it to include accountability measures.
Danish People's Party's social spokesman Mette Thiesen said, “We have a minister who sticks his head in the ground like an ostrich. I simply cannot understand why there is no interest in having this investigated thoroughly and thoroughly, so that people can get the clarification they deserve,” she said.