Norway has tightened controls on foreign adoptions but will allow them to continue while it conducts an investigation into the legality and ethics of past adoptions, the government said on Wednesday.
The move to continue allowing international adoptions for now was opposed by Norway's top regulatory body, the Norwegian Child Welfare Services, a government agency known as Bufdir, which in January recommended a pause pending an investigation.
“As the situation is now, I don't see the need for a temporary general suspension while the investigative committee works,” said Minister for Children and Families Kjersti Toppe.
“The overall goal is to get answers to whether and perhaps to what extent there have been illegal or unethical situations regarding foreign adoptions in Norway,” Toppe said.
The committee investigates past adoptions
In December, the government established an independent investigative committee to assess whether Norwegian authorities have sufficient control over adoptions from abroad and whether illegal or unethical circumstances occurred in adoptions in Norway. The committee is expected to complete its investigation by the end of 2025.
The investigation was launched after media reports in Norway highlighted the alleged illegal adoptions, alleging that some children in the Philippines were sold and given false birth certificates.
The government said it had implemented “risk reduction measures” for adoptions from abroad, including a formal review of all documents for each case transferred from adoption organizations to Bufdir. There are three adoption agencies in Norway.
Last year, Bufdir was also tasked with reviewing agreements with different countries to ensure the legality of adoptions with each of them.
Following reviews, agreements with Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Madagascar, the Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa and Peru were terminated. Only agreements with Colombia and Bulgaria have continued, while South Korea has received a limited permit, the Norwegian government said.
Agencies elsewhere are terminating international adoptions
In neighboring Denmark, the only overseas adoption agency in January said it was closing international adoptions after a government agency there raised concerns about falsified documents and procedures obscuring the biological origins of children abroad.
Sweden's only adoption agency said in November it was banning adoptions from South Korea after allegations of forged documents on the origin of children adopted from the country.
