“It felt like a slap in the face when we heard. This is what I had always wanted to avoid. And now, despite myself, I have a stolen child,” said one father.
He, like several other adoptive parents in Belgium, recently learned that the children they adopted years ago from DR Congo — who adoption agencies claimed were orphans — were in fact trafficked into orphanages after their birth parents were scammed.
Abdula Libenge is one father in rural DRC who sent his daughter to the capital of Kinshasa in 2015 on what he thought was a holiday camp. But his daughter never came back. She was trafficked into an orphanage and subsequently adopted by a Belgian family.
Suriya Moyumbe, a mother whose child was also trafficked explained, “My husband’s family blames me for giving her away for that holiday. I should never have done that. But we all thought it was a great opportunity.”
Now that the truth has come out, the BBC reports that the birth parents are still hoping to be reunited with their children, but it’s now up to a court in Belgian court to decide the children’s fate.
Their children never came back. Without access to legal representation or assistance from local authorities, all they could do was wait.
About two years after Mr Libenge’s daughter disappeared, he received an unexpected visit that would finally shed light on what happened.
Belgian journalists Kurt Wertelaers and Benoit de Freine had got wind of an inquiry beginning into adoption fraud in their country.
The Belgian public prosecutor had strong indications that the biological parents of a number of Congolese children adopted in Belgium were still alive, and the pair had set out to find them.
Wertelaers and De Freine returned to Brussels to present their evidence and the public prosecutor then travelled to Gemena in the DR Congo to gather DNA.Everything added up.
The orphanage in Kinshasa has since been shut down, and its operator, Julienne Mpemba, is under house arrest and facing criminal charges for her role as head of the orphanage.
Families in Belgium note that they were concerned about the adoption process, but the adoption agency dismissed their worries.
“Once she said ‘you’re not my mummy, Mummy’, when we were reading a fairy-tale,” said one adoptive mother.
“I raised the alarm immediately but was dismissed. I thought she might have been talking about an interim, host mother that she had been living with before coming here. But no. It was her mum.”
Back in DR Congo, Libenge can only wait for a Belgian court to decide what will happen to his daughter.
“I know people will say that she is better off in Belgium. And you know, maybe she is, but I don’t think it was up to anyone else to make that choice. And we didn’t get one.”
Subscribe
Freedom United is interested in hearing from our community and welcomes relevant, informed comments, advice, and insights that advance the conversation around our campaigns and advocacy. We value inclusivity and respect within our community. To be approved, your comments should be civil.
A few things we do not tolerate: comments that promote discrimination, prejudice, racism, or xenophobia, as well as personal attacks or profanity. We screen submissions in order to create a space where the entire Freedom United community feels safe to express and exchange thoughtful opinions.
Deeply shocking. What can the child make of this? If justice is seen to be fair in Belgium, the decision must rest with the child and the birth parent. If these children decide not to return the birth parents must be identified through DNA testing so that they can maintain family contact throughout their lives.
FRAN HEALEY
4 years ago
I don’t know why people assume that life will be better for a child in Europe than in the child’s native country with his or her own parents. It shows that Europeans value money more than family values. Health care and education may well be better, but leave the children alienated from their own family, country, and customs.
The “Crimes Against Children Remedy” bill, headed to the Alabama House floor, seeks to increase penalties for employers violating child labor laws. Advocates view this as a positive step forward from the state, which was just recently suggesting the use of minors to fill job vacancies, exploiting their vulnerability, and undercutting labor protections. With sixteen states that have enacted child labor law rollbacks across the U.S., the surge in child
Freedom United is interested in hearing from our community and welcomes relevant, informed comments, advice, and insights that advance the conversation around our campaigns and advocacy. We value inclusivity and respect within our community. To be approved, your comments should be civil.
Deeply shocking. What can the child make of this? If justice is seen to be fair in Belgium, the decision must rest with the child and the birth parent. If these children decide not to return the birth parents must be identified through DNA testing so that they can maintain family contact throughout their lives.
I don’t know why people assume that life will be better for a child in Europe than in the child’s native country with his or her own parents. It shows that Europeans value money more than family values. Health care and education may well be better, but leave the children alienated from their own family, country, and customs.