INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
consent, after a Guardian investigation into adoptions to the Netherlands in the 1970s.Bangladesh special branch in Dhaka confirmed it had
opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the adoption of a number of children between 1976 and 1979.It is the first time
vulnerable families were offered temporary shelter for their children only to find they were adopted abroad without their consent.Special
to the fact that the Guardian would soon be publishing a number of podcasts and articles about these allegations and asking that he look
Her letter was passed on to the home ministry, triggering the police investigation.International adoption from Bangladesh began shortly
after the end of the 1971 liberation war, when thousands of babies were born to survivors of rape
Thousands of adoptions took place in the following decade, long after the war had finished.In 1976 and 1977, allegations were made by a
number of Bangladeshi mothers from the Tongi area of Dhaka that they had been duped into giving up their children for temporary care in a
who believe they were stolen from their families in Bangladesh, and elderly mothers who claim that their children were taken without their
consent and were still hoping to be reunited with them.View image in fullscreenKana Verheul founded the Shapla Community to help reunite
adoptees in the Netherlands with their birth families
Photograph: Noor Alam/The GuardianKana Verheul, a Dutch-Bangladeshi adoptee, was the first witness to be interviewed by police
will cooperate with adoptees and grant us access to the support and information needed to recover our identities and reunite with our
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We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionVerheul
was brought to the Netherlands as a baby and described in her adoption papers as an orphan
But when she embarked on a search for her biological family in Bangladesh, she discovered that much of what she thought she knew about her
Verheul founded the Shapla Community, which represents the largest group of Bangladeshi adoptees in the Netherlands and is working to
reunite them with their birth families.In Tongi, there was a mixed reaction among the mothers, who for far too long have felt let down by
The mothers of Tongi are now old and so many have already died
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
