Police in Bangladesh have launched an investigation into historical allegations that children were adopted abroad without their parents’ 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 police have investigated allegations that children were lured from mothers using a tactic known as the “boarding school scam”, where vulnerable families were offered temporary shelter for their children only to find they were adopted abroad without their consent.
Special Supt Tahsin Mashroof Hossain Mashfi told the Guardian: “Shedding light on the matter has ignited a deep sense of responsibility. We commit to conducting a fair and impartial investigation, striving to contribute meaningfully to the nation’s healing process.”
Saida Muna Tasneem, Bangladesh’s high commissioner to the UK, wrote to the country’s foreign minister, AK Abdul Momen, in August 2023 to draw attention to the fact that the Guardian would soon be publishing a number of podcasts and articles about these allegations and asking that he look into the matter. 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. As a result, the government introduced emergency legislation allowing foreigners to adopt “war babies”, who had been left at orphanages across the country. 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 local children’s home and their children had been adopted to the Netherlands without their consent.
The Guardian interviewed several adoptees 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.
Kana Verheul, a Dutch-Bangladeshi adoptee, was the first witness to be interviewed by police. “The Dutch state has turned a blind eye to these allegations for far too long,” she told the Guardian.
“I hope Bangladesh, my birth country, will cooperate with adoptees and grant us access to the support and information needed to recover our identities and reunite with our families.”
Verheul 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 past was false. 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 authorities. “I want to believe this is good news and that there will be justice – but what does that mean any more?” said Nur Jahan, whose baby went missing in the late 70s.
“It has been almost half a century and I am still no closer to getting my child back,” she said. “Until we are reunited, there can be no justice in my eyes.”
Sayrun Nisa, whose son also went missing in the 1970s, said: “I have been praying for this for so long, it is hard to believe it’s actually happening. The mothers of Tongi are now old and so many have already died. I hope this investigation will find the answers we’ve all been searching for and finally give us some peace.”
To hear more about the mystery of Bangladesh’s missing children, listen to the Today is Focus episodes here.
