Korean-born Australian ‘stolen’ for adoption

A Korean-born Australian woman has charged that she was the victim of an illegal adoption.

She claimed she was adopted by an Australian family after she was “stolen” from her biological parents immediately after she was born in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province. Her story was aired by Australian public broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service.

According to the report, the 24-year-old woman living in Sydney, whose name was not disclosed for privacy reasons, was pronounced dead at birth at a small maternity home in the countryside. Her mother was told her baby was stillborn but was actually taken and later sold.

For decades, Korea was among the top ranking countries to provide babies for adoption following the 1950-53 Korean War.

“When I was born, they told my birth mother that I was stillborn. And that was it,” she said.

She discovered the truth behind her birth and adoption when she met with her biological parents for the first time.

She had believed she was put up for adoption after her biological parents decided to part ways. Her adoption papers said her parents were in a de facto relationship, a status considered shameful in traditional Korean society, with two daughters. However, her parents had in fact been married at the time.

She has filed a complaint with the Australian government’s attorney general and her case is now being investigated.

The woman has contacted the Eastern Social Welfare Society, a Korean adoption agency, asking for answers on how she was sent to Australia.

It revealed that she was transferred to an orphanage at the agency’s Jinju branch on the same day of her birth and was then placed in a foster home with another baby for four weeks before being transferred to a foster family, where she stayed till she was adopted at 5 months.

The report cited Jane Jeong Trenka, president of Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea, as saying that money was the driving force behind illegal adoptions in the past.

“In the days when South Korea was not economically developed, inter-country adoption was a way to secure precious foreign currency,” Trenka said.

The Australian woman lamented that her course of life was completely changed due to the illegal adoption.

“My birth mother can’t really talk about it without crying so I don’t try to push it,” she said. “My adoptive parents are just shattered as well.” <The Korea Times/Na Jeong-ju>

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