Paper Orphans: How Korean Children Were Made Orphans for Transnational Adoption
For decades, Korean adoption agencies and government institutions manipulated the legal identities of children to facilitate transnational adoption. A crucial step in the baby supply pipeline, was the creation of an “orphan hojuk” (orphan family registration) —a legal maneuver that falsely classified children as orphans, even when the Korean parents were known.
This process is a clear example of child laundering, where children’s identities were deliberately altered to make them appear legally available for adoption in the receiving country.
While some of these practices operated in a legal gray zone, where laws may not have explicitly criminalized the misrepresentation of children’s identities, they were deeply unethical. It was a system put in place that prioritized Western demand over children’s rights and erased their true identities.
How This System Worked
As Lee Kyung-eun (Ph.D. in law) explains in her article, Court Submission on the ‘Orphan-Making’ Process (The Korea Times, 2022), the process of sending Korean babies abroad for adoption followed a systematic legal reclassification. Babies were first registered as orphans through an orphan hojuk, severing their legal ties to their biological family. Adoption agencies then appointed themselves as legal guardians, allowing them to apply for passports and visas on the child’s behalf. Once emigration approval was granted, the child was sent overseas, where guardianship was transferred to adoptive parents before a final adoption ruling in the receiving country’s court.
Creating a False Family Register – the Orphan Hojuk
Adoption agencies systematically created new “orphan hojuks” for children acquired for overseas adoption. In a memo from 1983 on Korean adoption written by the Swedish adoption agency Adoptionscentrum, it is explicitly stated that the Korean adoption agency created this family registration for every child.
On paper, this erased all ties to their biological family—even when parents were alive and their identities known.
This reclassification was not just about severing legal ties to biological parents—it was a necessary step to facilitate international adoption. By fabricating an orphan status, adoption agencies ensured the child met the legal criteria for emigration, immigration, and adoption processing in the receiving country. Without this step, many children would not have been eligible for overseas adoption under the laws of receiving countries.
Appointment of a Guardian – The Adoption Agency Gains Full Control
Once a child was labeled as abandoned, the adoption agency could legally assume guardianship through an official procedure called “Appointment to Guardian of Minor Orphan in Orphanage.” In my case, the president of the adoption agency processing my adoption, Social Welfare Society (SWS), Mr. Tahk, became my legal guardian.
This critical step granted the agency full control over the child, allowing them to move forward with all necessary legal procedures to send the child abroad.
As the appointed guardian, the adoption agency could:
- Apply for a passport on the child’s behalf.
- Initiate the emigration process by submitting visa and adoption paperwork.
- Approve the child’s transfer to adoptive parents without further involvement from the biological family.
By laundering the child’s identity through an orphan hojuk and assuming legal guardianship, the adoption agency removed the child from the jurisdiction of their birth family and made them eligible for international adoption. This step was essential in ensuring that the child could be legally processed for emigration and adoption in the receiving country.
Why Was This Process Put in Place?
To Make International Adoption Easier
Many receiving countries had stricter adoption laws for children with known parents, requiring court approvals. Reclassifying children as orphans bypassed these safeguards, speeding up the process to enable agencies to send as many children abroad as possible.
To Avoid Complications with Parental Rights
If Korean parents remained on record, they could revoke consent or challenge the adoption. By erasing parents from legal documents, agencies ensured the adoption could not be stopped once the child had left Korea.
To Make the Child More “Adoptable”
For adoptive parents, it was more desireble to adopt an abandoned child than a child with living, known family members. The system catered to this preference by fabricating orphanhood, making the process emotionally and legally smoother for adoptive families.
To Meet the Demand for Babies
Transnational adoption was highly lucrative, and agencies needed a constant supply of children to send abroad. The pressure to process adoptions quickly was fueled by competition between agencies, each striving to meet the demand from receiving countries. Falsifying orphan status ensured a steady flow of “adoptable” children—at the cost of their true identities, severed family ties, and lifelong consequences for the adoptees.
Legal and Ethical Implications
Fraudulent Classification
By fabricating orphan status, adoption agencies altered children’s legal identities, potentially violating both Korean law and international human rights standards. This deliberate misclassification ensured that children met legal requirements for adoption and emigration, often without their biological parents’ full understanding or consent.
Loss of Identity
Adoptees whose records were falsified lost access to their true origins. Many only discovered as adults that they had living, known Korean parents—sometimes after it was too late to reunite with them.
Even when adoptees attempt to reclaim their history, many report that adoption agencies refuse to provide their adoption documents—records that could contain information about their Korean family.
Potential Human Trafficking Violations
Child laundering is a recognized form of human trafficking, where children are fraudulently declared as orphans and placed for international adoption under false pretenses.
While these adoptions may have been legally facilitated, they raise serious concerns about informed consent, identity falsification, and the prioritization of Western demand over children’s rights. Adoption should be about finding homes for children who truly need them, not about manufacturing orphans for profit.
The Lasting Impact of Adoption Fraud on Adoptees
The unethical—and potentially illegal—processing of our adoptions is not just a dark chapter in our histories; it is something we carry for life. Instead of acknowledging their wrongdoings, adoption agencies deny responsibility, refuse accountability, and offer no apologies. Worse, when we seek the truth, we are gaslit, shamed, and dismissed by the agencies that profited from our adoptions.
Adoptees who have searched for answers about their adoption paperwork have been stonewalled and silenced by the adoption agencies. I, along with other adoptees in Sweden, have faced this firsthand when trying to get answers from Adoptionscentrum.
We were not orphans. Our identities were laundered, erased, and rewritten to serve the adoption industry.
We are surviving transnational and transracial adoption.
We are surviving the continued abuse of our adoption agencies.