In 2021, DN revealed how adoptees were taken from their parents on illegal grounds, then described as orphans and adopted to Sweden. DN was also able to show how Swedish supervisory authorities were aware of warnings and alarms - and still decided to let the adoptions continue.
When an investigation around the turn of the millennium proposed more rules, the proposals were dismissed, among other things by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson - who was then chairman of the Adoptionscentrum.
After DN's review, the Swedish government appointed a state adoption commission, led by law professor Anna Singer. Just over three years later, the investigation proposed, among other things, a stop to international adoptions to Sweden, a public apology to adoptees, and a national resource center to support adoptees who want to search for their roots.
- Today we have gained even more clarity that children and parents have suffered and been harmed for decades within the framework of the international adoption business, said Camilla Waltersson Grönvall, Minister of Social Services (M), when she received the investigation.
The current government has so far not given any apology to adoptees who were taken from their parents on illegal grounds. And the international adoptions to Sweden continue.
But a resource center is to be launched.
No later than January 1 next year, according to a government assignment to the Authority for Family Law and Parental Support, Mfof.
In an audio recording from a meeting between associations for adoptees and managers at Mfof, it appears that the new resource center will offer the same services that are already available at the authority today – conversation support and help to search for roots.
The new thing is that all information will be collected "under an umbrella", a new website, and that Mfof - located in Skellefteå - will have "a physical presence" in Stockholm. Several adoptees who have contacted DN are disappointed and describe the resource center as "a castle in the air".
Helena Bäcklund, head of department for international adoptions, tells DN that Mfof had wanted more funding.
- We do not receive extra money for this, but it is done based on existing funds that we have already received.
She sees the new website as "a starting point".
- It is a challenge. But I hope and believe that there is an intention to give us more long-term funding going forward.
In the recording from the meeting, which DN has listened to, there is strong criticism of the plans.
Several adoptees point out that they have put forward proposals for new necessary investments. Some also question why Mfof - whose predecessors did not go to the bottom with alarms about illegal adoptions - should now be in charge of support for adoptees. Confidence in Mfof is, according to many meeting participants, non-existent.
Hanna Wallensteen, who herself is adopted, attended the meeting. Now she feels dejected.
- I had expected a serious and comprehensive resource center, that Sweden would be a leading country for care. In fact, one is just trying to get away without doing anything and at the same time silence the criticism.
The managers at Mfof receive questions at the meeting about why the authority has not apologized to adoptees who have been exposed to crimes and serious irregularities.
"If we were to go out and give such an apology, we would also offend others who do not feel that they have been victimized," replies Helena Bäcklund.
"If you do it generally".
She says that adoptees have contacted Mfof, been sad and said that they might not have been alive if they had not been adopted to Sweden.
Helena Bäcklund tells DN that the issue of a public apology is sensitive.
- It is really the state, that is, the government, that must give that excuse. Maybe not us as an authority.
Have you considered apologizing for the mistakes Mfof and its predecessors have made?
- We have not reasoned about it.
In a comment, Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Grönvall writes that the resource center should be a "clear way in" for adoptees who need support.
"With the possibility of providing direct support in Stockholm County, this can be achieved to a greater extent than today".
Regarding the financing, Waltersson Grönvall writes that it "is within the framework of the authority's administrative appropriation". "The assignment formalizes tasks that the authority already has in a resource centre".
