SEOUL — A South Korean truth commission has revealed that adoption agencies sent children abroad like "luggage" for decades, often misrepresenting them as orphans even when they had living parents. In some cases, when infants died before being sent overseas, agencies replaced them with other babies, the commission reported on Wednesday (March 26).

Following a two-year investigation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established by parliament, urged the government to issue a formal apology, conduct further investigations, and implement relief measures for victims. The commission identified human rights violations in at least 56 cases from a petition involving 367 adoptees sent abroad between 1964 and 1999 to countries such as the United States, France, Denmark, and Sweden.

As part of its findings, the commission released a 1984 photograph showing babies wrapped in blankets and strapped into airline seats, titled "Children sent abroad like luggage." It noted that South Korean adoption agencies operated under pressure from foreign agencies to meet monthly quotas for sending children.

"For nearly five decades after the Korean War, the government prioritized international adoption as a low-cost alternative to improving domestic child welfare policies," the commission stated. It found that authorities failed to oversee adoption agencies, allowing them to engage in fraudulent orphan registrations, identity tampering, and insufficient screening of adoptive parents.

The report highlighted that agencies frequently failed to obtain proper consent, falsified records to classify children as orphans, and, in cases where a baby died before departure, sent another child under the deceased infant’s identity. The independent commission was created through a 2020 parliamentary revision, with ruling and opposition parties each appointing four members under a chairperson designated by the president. The office of South Korea's acting president has not yet responded to the report.

Beyond calling for an official apology, the commission recommended a comprehensive survey of adoptees’ citizenship status, remedies for those whose identities were falsified, prompt ratification of the Hague Adoption Convention, and commitments from adoption agencies to restore adoptees' rights. "These violations should never have happened," said Commission Chairperson Park Sun-young. "Adoptive countries and adoptees must work together to resolve the identity crises many adoptees face."

Disclaimer: This image is taken from Reuters.