The Dutch government will create an external commission to investigate intercountry adoptions in the past. Special focus will be put on the facts and the role of the Dutch government in respect to these adoptions. The decision follows a request for information done by Lisa Komp on behalf of Patrick Noordoven.

Patrick Noordoven was illegally adopted in Brazil in 1980 by a Dutch couple. Patrick was handed over to them on the street by employees of a children's home. At the municipality the couple declared that he was their biological son.

An employee of the Dutch consulate in Sao Paulo played a key role in facilitating Patrick’s illegal adoption. Based on the information that has now become public, the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security has concluded that people linked to the Dutch government may have facilitated illegal adoptions. Furthermore, it appears that these persons were deliberately excluded from the criminal investigations that were conducted into illegal adoptions from Brazil in 1983.

The external commission will not only investigate intercountry adoptions from Brazil, but also from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Colombia and Indonesia.

 

See also (in Dutch):

 

Previously

For more information about Patrick Noordoven’s case as well as persons adopted from Sri Lanka visit our previous news items:

Share this message with

Do you have a question?

Read in our privacy statement how we handle your personal data.

Prakken d'Oliveira, formerly known as Böhler, is a law firm with expertise and experience in asylum and immigration law, European law, administrative law, international criminal law and human rights. Our lawyers provide advice and conduct procedures before the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), the Dutch Review Committee on the Intelligence and Security Services (CTIVD), the District- and Appeals courts, the Administrative Law Division of the Dutch Council of State, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), the Human Rights Treaty Bodies of the United Nations (UN), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and other international tribunals.