‘PD Notebook’ sheds light on the comprehensive issues surrounding the management of adoption records for children adopted abroad.
On the 14th at 10:20 PM, MBC's current affairs program ‘PD Notebook’ will air the episode titled ‘The Disappeared Adoption Records: The Country That Erased Me’.
For over 70 years, South Korea has sent more than 200,000 children abroad for adoption, earning the shameful label of ‘child exporting country’. Recently, comprehensive issues have emerged regarding the management of adoption records for those adopted overseas, jeopardizing their search for roots. It has been revealed that not only adoption agencies but also public institutions, which promised to manage private records well, have concealed problems. ‘PD Notebook’ will investigate the reality of the adoption record digitization project that took place over the past 10 years since 2013.
Adoptees Who Trusted False Records
‘PD Notebook’ met adoptees who faced difficulties in finding their biological families due to adoption records. Danish adoptee Park Sang-jo visited Korea more than ten times over 35 years to find his biological parents. He believed the adoption record from Holt Children's Services stating he was an ‘orphan’ and gave up on finding his family. However, this year he suddenly learned that there was information about his biological father, which shocked him. His biological father had already passed away, making a reunion impossible, but Holt refused Park's request to provide adoption records so he could at least meet his many siblings. After overcoming various obstacles, Park dramatically reunited with his biological siblings and learned that his family had requested the agency to find him long ago, but they were rejected, being told he had already gone far away, realizing he had been searching in vain all his life.
The production team also covered another incredible story of a Danish adoptee. Mia met her biological father through the adoption agency and lived as a family for three years, even holding a sad funeral for him. However, she later discovered that after her father's death, he was not her biological family. Her file had been swapped with another adoptee's, leading to this absurd situation. This highlights how crucial accurate record management is for adoptees. ‘PD Notebook’ focused on the absurd situation where information errors have not been corrected even after the completion of the adoption record digitization project.
Flawed Adoption Record Digitization Project, 10 Years of Concealment
The adoption record digitization project aimed to systematically digitize adoption records from closed institutions (orphanages) to register data in the ACMS (Adoption Information Comprehensive Management System) for the systematic ‘family finding’ of adoptees. ‘PD Notebook’ met with multiple public interest informants to hear about the realities of this project. The informants revealed that crucial information such as the birth dates and phone numbers of biological parents were missing, and in some cases, the children themselves were not registered at all.
In addition to the issue of project results not being uploaded to the system, it was confirmed that there were serious management failures, including the loss of original project outputs, blank scans, and proxy execution of services. Despite these issues, the same service and supervision companies continued to carry out the 2 billion won project for 10 years. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, the supervisory agency, completed an audit last November and requested disciplinary action and investigation against those responsible for project inspection and management. Will the Child Rights Protection Agency reflect on past mistakes and become a public manager of adoption records in the year of adoption publicization? Above all, can the lost data of adoptees be recovered?
‘PD Notebook - The Disappeared Adoption Records: The Country That Erased Me’ will air on the 14th at 10:20 PM.
[Kim So-yeon, Star Today Reporter]
