Minister looks at case of stolen children
Thousands of Chilean children were stolen from their parents during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship and were adopted to Europe. Now the Minister of Interior and Social Affairs, Astrid Krag (S) is getting into the matter.
Faxe, Denmark – 14 September 2020 at 15:01
By Morten Chas Overgaard
Contact the editors: sndk@sn.dk
Source of this article: SN.dk (Danish written)
In Denmark, we trust the people who are employed to take care of us, but under Augusto Pinochet’s rule in Chile in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, it was precisely the people who were responsible for some of the worst crimes.
Newborns were removed from their parents, who were told by doctors that the children were born dead, and children up to the age of eight were stolen from parks, playgrounds and hospital rooms by police and social workers, after which they were adopted to the United States and several European countries as part of Pinochet’s efforts to ‘cleanse’ Chile of poverty.
The Chilean organization Chilean Adoptees Worldwide is working to get the 19 countries that then adopted Chilean children to investigate whether the children have in fact been removed illegally from their parents.
As part of a pilot project, about 2,000 Chilean adopted children have already been found in Sweden, and now the cases of the adopted children must also be investigated in Denmark.
It is completely heartbreaking if it turns out that there are children who have been adopted in Denmark as a result of kidnapping. Fortunately, a lot has happened in the field of adoption since the 70s, and there are countries that we no longer work with to ensure that the rules are followed, but it is almost unbearable if it turns out that these people have been kidnapped as children, says Minister of Interior and Social Affairs, Astrid Krag (S).
Hoping to create calmness
After the Minister went into the case of the Chilean children, the National Board of Appeal has made an initial investigation of the cases that have been found so far, and the message from the National Board of Appeal is that there is a background to investigate the cases further.
Astrid Krag hopes that a study can help the Danish who were adopted from Chile under Pinochet’s rule to get a clarification of their past, but she also acknowledges that it will probably only be a patch on the wound.
We can not change the past, but we can try to create clarity for the affected families. Now we have to see what the National Board of Appeal finds out, but first and foremost I hope that the investigation can create some peace for the Chilean adopted children and their families, because we owe it to them, she says.
According to Astrid Krag, a similar case could never arise today, as the rules have been tightened several times, and although it is tragic that it may have taken place in the past, it has been without the knowledge of the Danish adoptive families.
It is really important for me to emphasize that the adoptive families of these children have not done anything wrong. If it turns out that the children have come to Denmark in an illegal way, then the families in Denmark have not known anything about the background, states Astrid Krag.
It is still unknown how many – if any – of the Chilean adopted children have been stolen at the time, but that is what the National Board of Appeal is looking into.
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