Response to interpellation 2022/23:165 on the criminal investigation of Chilean adoptions
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the criminal investigation of Chilean adoptions and how Sweden should ensure legal and ethical adoptions 1 2. M argues that the government has taken measures by MFoF becoming the national contact point 1 and that the criminal investigation in Chile is Chile's own concern, but that Sweden wants to be helpful 2. M wants the Adoption Commission's work to strengthen the child rights perspective 3 2 and notes that the legislation regarding surrogate motherhood is at a standstill 4. M emphasizes that the government takes the issue seriously and wants to follow the commission's proposals carefully 4. C considers that it took too long to start working on the issue 5 and requests a fast track for legislative changes 6 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Mr. Speaker! Martina Johansson has asked me whether the government intends to ensure that affected Swedish citizens receive the support they need for a process that is as legally secure as possible. She has also asked me, in the event that the government intends to ensure such support, in what way the government intends to do so.
Sweden has, during political consultations with Chile, stated that it can assist the criminal investigation if there is a need for it. The Ministry of Justice has also had a continuous dialogue and several meetings with interest groups, among these Chileadoption.se. The Swedish Embassy in Chile has also met representatives from local interest groups. Both the Agency for Family Law and Parenthood Support, MFoF, and the Adoption Commission (S 2021:08) were on-site in Chile during the end of 2022 to better understand the need for measures and support that exists.
The Government has taken several measures to ensure that adopted children receive better support. Among other things, MFoF has been tasked to be the national contact point during 2022/23 for issues concerning irregularities in international adoptions. This assignment includes that the agency shall be able to refer further to the correct actor and offer support and assistance within the framework of the agency's responsibility.
As a point of contact, MFoF shall keep itself updated on relevant investigations both in Sweden and internationally, including the criminal investigation in Chile regarding the abduction of children and irregularities within international adoptions from the country during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Within the framework of the assignment, the authority shall inform itself about challenges and issues regarding those adopted from Chile, but also regarding those adopted from other origins where there are suspicions or information about irregularities.
MFoF has also been tasked to carry out further supporting measures within the international adoption area. The agency shall continue to provide support to internationally adopted children in connection with origin searches during 2022/23. MFoF shall also provide adoption-specific professional counseling support to adopted children and adoptive parents, as a complement to ordinary health and medical care.
The Adoption Commission also has a mandate to investigate the need for adoption-specific support and to propose help and support measures that should be offered.
Martina Johansson (C)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer! I think it is very good that things are moving within MFoF and the mission to support persons who are adopted from another country to Sweden. It is also good that one has the mission to work with supporting individuals in what is needed, including origin searches. It is difficult for Swedish municipalities to fulfill the mission that previously has rested entirely on them and to maintain the competence that is needed, given that there are not so many people being adopted anymore. There were significantly more before.
MFoF became aware that the irregularities were occurring somewhere around 2018 – but there was also information about this in Sweden earlier, according to the review carried out primarily by the media. I feel that it took a long time for the previous government to start working on the issue, and I hope that this government can be a bit faster. We shall see.
I am reflecting on the point of contact that MFoF is to be, according to the minister's answer. According to what I have been informed, they have not quite gotten started yet, even though the knowledge about Chile has existed for a long time. From the answer, it appears that the national point of contact shall refer to the correct actors to the extent that help is needed, and that this shall take place within the framework of the agency's responsibility.
I asked in my interpellation whether the government intends to ensure that one receives support in the legal process and that it is legally secure. I do not know if I have received an answer to that question because I do not quite understand what the mandate of the contact point is. Therefore, I supplement with the question of what that mandate entails. Who is it that is supposed to contact the contact point? Is it the criminal investigation in Chile, the individual adopter, or the adoptive parents? And when the contact point is to refer to the correct authority, does it mean that one should be given access to support in the legal process from lawyers who can also speak Spanish? Is it about following the DNA samples we provide today?
I have another question. Does the Minister perceive that there could be a risk when MFoF has the mandate to support the work when it concerns both Chile and other countries where irregularities are suspected, and at the same time, the authority is to authorize and exercise supervision over the adoption associations that today assist with international adoptions?
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank the member for the important questions. They mean a great deal and evoke a great deal of emotion in many people. Just as the member says, it has taken time to arrive at the assignment that the previous government finally gave. Initially, it is important to state that the Adoption Commission shall submit its report by November 7th of this year at the latest. We will certainly have reason to return to some of the member's questions when the Adoption Commission submits its proposals and recommendations.
Unfortunately, some of the member's questions lie within the Adoption Commission's mandate to investigate and submit proposals to ensure. The State must, of course, always ensure and guarantee that adoptions take place in a legal and ethical manner. The Adoption Commission shall assist in the work with all available resources. They have, among other things, been on site in Chile and worked together with MFoF. There is, therefore, an authority to link the work against.
As I said initially, the Adoption Commission has a mandate to investigate the need for adoption-specific support and to propose help and support measures that should be offered. This is so that it can be systematized and not just be done on an ad hoc basis, but also in connection with the cases of international adoptions that we see today. They are becoming, as the member pointed out, fewer and fewer.
As a matter of chance, I will visit MFoF in Skellefteå tomorrow, and by reason of this interpellation, I have received more questions and points to discuss properly with them.
I also hope to have the opportunity to continue developing the thoughts on how MFoF should work. The basis states that one should be able to provide adoption-specific professional conversation support; perhaps someone is worried about not knowing what the investigation in Chile will lead to.
It is clear that there will be much anxiety and many reasons to receive support and help with conversations when one has questions about one's origin. It is not difficult to empathize with what it would mean if one were in that situation oneself. I have committed myself to trying to understand this. One needs to get help from counselors and psychologists, that is to say, people with the competence to meet this.
The Chairman asks for legal assistance. This is also something that will be part of the presentation of the Adoption Commission's report.
Martina Johansson (C)
Madam Speaker! I thank Camilla Waltersson Grönvall again for the answer.
The Adoption Commission has a mandate and is to present its result in November. I think that what the government does until November is also important. The criminal investigation in Chile is currently ongoing. Swedish citizens are involved in it in different ways. They are to answer questions and need to be contacted. According to the information I have, there is no natural way for those working with the criminal investigation in Chile to get in contact with individual citizens in Sweden. Just that makes it difficult to see how legal certainty can be ensured for our citizens. I therefore do not feel completely secure with the answer regarding what is being done right now.
I know that an investigation must be allowed to work. One can always reflect on how quickly an investigation was put in place.
Let me continue something about the Adoption Commission's work. The result will be available in November. Does the government have any plan for how quickly the proposals that will be in the investigation will be processed? Will you have a fast track to quickly implement the potential legislative changes that are needed or changes to the adoption organizations? It is not exactly curator talks that I am requesting in my interpellation, but it was about other kinds of support to individual individuals.
The Minister may not have the answers to these questions and wants to have them tomorrow. I too would like to hear these answers, so I may perhaps write a new interpellation to hear what the meeting yielded.
Without rules, irregularities can occur. I am also involved in international adoptions because there is another way to become a parent for which we in Sweden have no regulation today. I will therefore move on to the subject of surrogacy. We do not allow it in Sweden today, and we also do not have sufficiently good agreements and rules in relation to other countries where surrogacy is permitted. That makes me a little worried. If we do not address this now, it could put us in a difficult situation in the future.
During the previous parliamentary term, the minister and I agreed that we want to see an altruistic surrogacy in Sweden and that we want to regulate the whole thing towards the countries that allow surrogacy today to also ensure these children's rights. Even though this does not directly apply to international adoptions, it is very closely linked. I am therefore a bit curious whether the government has any plans to also address this form of international assistance with parenthood.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Martina Johansson for developing the question.
I want to emphasize that the Ministry of Social Affairs has had a continuous dialogue with interest groups and has met with them. Among these is Chileadoption.se. The Ministry of Social Affairs has committed to taking part of all the experiences and views that exist, and these are collected in the ministry so that work can continue with them.
We will continue to follow the criminal investigation very closely. But a country's criminal investigation is the country's and in this case Chile's own affair, which Sweden can neither or may not interfere with in any way. We have, however, said that we want to be helpful in all possible ways and forms, if such something were to be requested. But the national criminal investigation is here Chile's, just as a national criminal investigation would have been Sweden's in a corresponding case.
With that said, the government has taken several measures to ensure that adoptees receive better support and information, also regarding any irregularities within international adoptions.
In October 2021, as mentioned, the previous government appointed an inquiry with the task of clarifying the occurrence of any irregularities within Sweden's international adoption activities backwards in time and up until today. The information that has emerged regarding that irregularities or suspected irregularities are said to have occurred is worrying. I want to emphasize that. The government and I take these pieces of information most seriously.
The lessons from the Adoption Commission shall provide guidance for developing Sweden's international adoption activities. The investigator shall therefore also propose how the current regulatory framework, organization, and processes can be changed and strengthened in order to further strengthen the child rights perspective, something that both the member and I myself are passionate about. We both want to ensure that it exists in all parts of society and that there shall therefore be legal certainty.
Just as the member said, an investigation must be allowed to do its work. I cannot do much about the fact that it was appointed as late as it was, but I will let it finish its work. One should probably not have too high expectations that I will have answers to all questions after the visit to Skellefteå tomorrow, but we must probably wait until November before we receive a number of different proposals.
Then this shall, of course, be handled, and I have no intention of delaying the whole thing any longer than necessary. This shall, of course, take place in a reassuring manner, as we usually handle investigations. The investigation must, however, be allowed to finish its work. That is my and the government's position.
Altruistic host-motherhood is something we must return to. I have not changed my own perception in any way, but the issue concerns more of the ministers in the Ministry of Social Affairs. We need to handle this collectively, and I hope to return to the issue.
Martina Johansson (C)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
One can always wonder whether things are done at the right time or when they should have been done, and one can lament when something is done too late. We agree that is the case here.
There is something that is a bit troubling. We are talking about an investigation taking place in Chile and what crimes have been committed there. But we have not actually addressed the crimes that may have been committed in Sweden. If I am correctly informed, we do not have any corresponding investigation in Sweden. This probably has to do with our legislation and how long ago this occurred. For this reason, I wish that the government took a more active part in this and did not just await an investigation in another country. We could have assisted in it and gained more knowledge.
I want to thank the Minister for the commitment. I hope that we can move the issues forward together. It is important for the people in Sweden who suspect that they would not have found themselves here if things had gone correctly in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I hope that we can also return to the issue of host motherhood so that we are not standing here in 10 or 20 years having a similar discussion about it.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Martina Johansson for these questions, which testify to a tireless commitment to ensuring that vulnerable groups receive better support.
The problems we see in a changing society are partly structural. I am thinking perhaps especially of the situation surrounding surrogacy and altruistic surrogacy. We see that the world is changing, but the legislation stands still.
In the tragic cases we are discussing, and which form the basis for the intention of the interpellation, it is suspected that people have been deported on incorrect premises. A criminal investigation is being conducted to ensure how it has occurred. It is naturally a painful process in the home country. But it is also a painful process in the countries that have received children from countries where it is suspected to be based on irregularities.
I want to emphasize that this is in no way something that the government takes lightly. The proposals and directions that the Adoption Commission will come up with later this year, we will take with the utmost seriousness. We will follow this very closely. I want to underline that the government is doing everything it can to ensure the situation for those people who are currently living with question marks and anxiety regarding their own origins. We will, of course, do everything we can to be helpful.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.