COPENHAGEN: Danes will no longer be able to adopt children from abroad after the country’s only adoption agency said on Tuesday it was ceasing operations amid reports of irregularities.
The Danish International Adoption (DIA) agency said in a statement it was “initiating a controlled wind-up of its activities as a facilitator of international adoptions”.
The announcement came after Denmark’ social affairs ministry suspended adoptions from the six countries with which DIA currently cooperates due to irregularities involving employment regulations.
The six countries are India, Czechia, the Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan and Thailand.
The DIA, which halted adoptions from Madagascar last year amid concerns over possible fraud, said on Tuesday it had no choice but to shut down.
“International adoption can no longer, under the current conditions in Denmark, be run by an NGO like ours,” DIA said.
It said it was currently handling 36 adoption procedures, and provided no details about what would happen to those cases.
Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2024
