Adoption is legalized child trafficking, say Roelie Post and Arun Dohle. Together they founded Against Child Trafficking. If it is up to them, intercountry adoption disappears in five years time.
On the wall of their office in Brussels is a large world map with green, red, and blue dots. Green for the ‚open‘ adoption countries, red for the countries that closed their doors. And blue ones represent the regions that Roelie Post (49) and Arun Dohle (36) have so far examined: Malawi, Ethiopia, China, Peru, and India.
Their goal is a „red world“: five years from now inter-country adoptions should have been stopped. According to them, it is a „legalized trade of children”, where vulnerable children are exchanged for large sums of money. Their description of adoption has, John Le Carré-like features stolen babies, unscrupulous traders, cheating orphanage directors, and forged adoption procedures. This is, as they say, the rule.
To make this „commerce“ visible and to frustrate it, Post and Dohle, together founded Against Child Trafficking (ACT). In their office, located in Post’s basement, the two make long days: „And often the phone rings here at three at night”.