During the last 50 years the Dutch have adopted around 40,000 children from 80 countries. From February 2021 to November 2022, the Dutch government has frozen adoptions from foreign countries
The Netherlands will no longer allow its citizens to adopt children from foreign countries, it has announced on Wednesday 22/05, the Minister of Legal Protection, Frank Veerwind.
The minister assured, however, that those files of intercountry adoption that have already been opened, will not be affected for the time being.
The last 50 years The Dutch adopted around 40,000 children from 80 countries. This trend has been declining recently: just 145 children were adopted in 2019 and 70 in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest figures available from the independent Dutch Youth Institute.
From February 2021 to November 2022, the Dutch government had frozen intercountry adoptions.
The Netherlands' adoption policy has come under fire after many citizens who were adopted as infants and attempted to trace their roots, found that birth certificates had been forged or lost, or that the adoption was illegal.
source: AMPE
