Illegally adopted children are seeking their families in Indonesia. They are being obstructed by complex bureaucracy.
BABY tears were once a commodity. From the 1970s until the beginning of the 1980s, some children born into poor families in Indonesia never really went home to the arms of their parents. They were separated, their identities were erased and then they were flown to the Netherlands under an international adoption scheme. Now they are facing a peculiar citizenship problem.
On paper, these children were orphans. But in fact, they still had mothers and fathers. The government only halted the international adoption policy in 1983. At the time, thousands of documents tracing their origins had already disappeared.
This history had long been buried. Marlou Schrover, a professor of economic and social history at Leiden University, revived it in an article entitled, Parenting, Citizenship and Belonging in Dutch Adoption Debates 1900-1995 (2020). She explained how Dutch adoption organizations initially took tourists to visit the country’s former colony. In Indonesia, they saw poverty, neglected children and vulnerable families. From this the conviction grew that these children would have a better future if they were brought up in Europe. The colonial perspective transformed into a moral justification.
Behind this rescue plan, an industry grew. The Dutch-Indonesian adoption connection was supported by falsification of documents, administrative manipulation and erasure of identities. Orphanages, health care personnel, maternity clinics, and international foundations all became part of the same supply chain. People seeking babies combed pockets of poverty along Java’s north coast, from Tegal, Central Java; Yogyakarta; to Pasuruan, Lamongan and Gresik in East Java.
Poor families had almost no opportunity to refuse. Some babies were bought, some were kidnapped and others were obtained through traps relating to maternity costs. One mother was promised that they would not have to pay for childbirth. After the baby was born, they were suddenly asked to pay huge amounts. If the parents were unable to pay, their children became collateral. Parents who had lost hope were given a promise: their children would have a better life in Europe.
After this, their identities gradually erased. Documents were destroyed, names were changed and ties to their origins cut. In Pasuruan, archives of baby records were systematically destroyed. Every month, six to 10 babies were sent from Surabaya and Jakarta to have their legal status “cleansed” before being flown to the Netherlands. It was not only children that were moved, but also their entire life histories.
Almost half a century passed. Ironically, when some of these children wanted to restore their Indonesian citizenship, they came across inflexible bureaucracy. The lack of recognition of dual nationality left some of them with uncertain status in their country of birth. They lost their Indonesian citizenship while they were still babies, and are now having problems getting it back.
The state cannot simply view this as a past mistake. Lack of oversight made it possible for this child trade to continue for years. Therefore, matters cannot be fixed with merely an expression of regret. The state needs to open up the archives, make it easier to trace families, restore identities and provide certainty of citizenship and provide legal protection for those victims who want to come home.
