Swedish PM 'not ruling out' state apology to international adoptees
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who chaired the agency managing adoptions to Sweden some 20 years ago, has said he's not ruling out an apology after an inquiry unveiled widespread abuses spanning several decades.
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Kristersson told the TT news agency that he's not ruling out an official state apology to international adoptees, after the government-appointed inquiry sharply criticised previous state inaction on adoptions under questionable circumstances.
The investigation, led by civil law professor Anna Singer, found evidence of child trafficking in about ten cases, mostly from the 1970s and 80s. In many more cases, parental consent was missing or poorly documented. It proposed banning all international adoptions.
It was launched in 2021 after reports surfaced of children stolen from countries such as Chile, China, and South Korea.
Kristersson himself has been caught up at the centre of scandal, as he served as chair of Adoptionscentrum, the organisation arranging international adoptions to Sweden, between 2003 and 2005.
"The information there is now didn't exist at the time, it has emerged afterwards," he told TT.
He said that he welcomed the inquiry commission's report.
"It's incredibly important that this work has been done. There's a great number of proposals from the commission which we are now going to study very carefully," he said. "The government isn't ruling anything out."
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