Denmark today suspended all adoptions from India after a news report claimed that some of the children who have been adopted in the Scandinavian country could have been abducted.“I am concerned about the conditions that have surfaced,” said Carina Christensen, the consumer and family affairs minister, adding that Denmark has temporarily suspended all adoptions from India “until we feel totally safe that the adoptions can be made in a reassuring way.”Christensen also ordered Danish authorities to investigate AC International Child Support, one of Denmark's two government-approved adoption agencies. The organisation, known as AC, was accused in a TV documentary of having received children from an orphanage in Pune without the birth parents’ approval.In the documentary that was broadcast yesterday, Ramesh Kulkarne claimed that after his wife’s death, he had temporarily put his two children in Preet Mandir orphanage. Kulkarne said that for years, he was barred from seeing his children at the orphanage.In April, Kulkarni learned that the pair had been adopted in Denmark in 2003 through AC International Child Support. “If the Indian authorities’ investigation shows that Kulkarne wrongfully had his children taken away from him, it is a very tragic case and a big tragedy," AC board chairman Anders Christensen said. The Denmark-based agency said it had stopped cooperating with Preet Mandir in June 2003 after “repeated rumours about the agency's management’s use of unethical methods.” The documentary showed orphanage manager J Bhasin, filmed with a hidden camera, saying that a child cost $ 7,000. “Children who are adopted in Denmark cannot be bought,” Christensen said. "That is in violation of international rules.”
