Thousands of foreign children were probably illegally adopted by Swiss citizens between 1970 and 1990 from a number of countries, including Romania, which continues to “mark their lives”, the Swiss government admitted on Friday, AFP reported.

The Federal Council (the government) has announced – following revelations made in a new report it commissioned – that it will demand a review of international adoption legislation.

Back in 2020, after many shocking testimonies from people who were illegally adopted in Sri Lanka, the first report showed a lack of response from the authorities “despite previous and clear indications of violations committed by brokers for the adoption of children from Sri Lanka”.

A second study by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) analyzes ten other countries of origin: Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, India, Colombia, South Korea, Lebanon, Peru and Romania.

“The signs, as a rule, indicate the existence of illegal practices, child trafficking, falsification of documents and false indications of origin in these countries,” the Council said in a press release, according to Agerpres.

During this period, ZHAW researchers found 8,000 Swiss entry permits for children from these countries: 2,799 children came from India, 2,122 from Colombia, 1,222 from Brazil and 1,065 from South Korea.

The available documents do not allow determining the exact number of persons concerned, but the number of entry permits issued in Switzerland “however shows that several thousand children adopted during the analyzed period may be affected by violations”, the government admits.

He “expresses regret that the authorities have not sufficiently taken responsibility for children and their families.”

“These disadvantages continue to mark the lives of persons adopted at that time,” emphasizes the Council, which explains that it is the competence of the cantons of the Confederation to “support interested persons in the search for their origins.”