Netherlands Halts International Adoptions Amid Controversies

The Netherlands ceases international adoptions, citing forged or missing birth documents. Ongoing procedures will continue, but declining adoption numbers signal a shift. Dutch parents have previously adopted 40,000 children from 80 countries over fifty years, with a significant reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Netherlands will no longer permit its citizens to adopt children from foreign countries, a Dutch government minister said on Tuesday. Minister for Legal Protection Franc Weerwind added that intercountry procedures that already started will continue for the time being.

Dutch parents adopted around 40,000 children from 80 countries in the previous half-century. The practice has declined in recent years, with just 145 children adopted in 2019, dropping to 70 in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to most recent numbers of the independent Dutch Youth Institute think tank. Between February 2021 and November 2022, the Dutch government had already implemented a freeze of almost two years on intercountry adoptions.

Dutch adoption policies came under scrutiny after increasing numbers of adult previously adopted children began to research their roots and often found that their birth documents had been forged or lost, or that their adoption had been illegal.

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