Why countries are banning international adoptions 

Switzerland is planning to ban international adoptions, following revelations of shady practices in the past. Other countries banning international adoptions claim they are doing it for the child’s welfare, but sometimes it’s just about power politics. Children from abroad should no longer be adopted in Switzerland in the future – this is the plan of the Swiss government. In 2023 the government acknowledged significant irregularities in international adoptions between 1970 and 1999. These findings by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) highlighted systemic failures and negligence by both federal and cantonal authorities. Several thousand children from Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, India, Colombia, South Korea, Lebanon and Romania were brought to Switzerland through illegal practices, including child trafficking, forged documents and missing information about their origins. The written consent of biological parents was often lacking. In Chile and Brazil, for ...