Sending Countries

In 2012, Colombia’s intercountry adoption system came under public scrutiny after a private national television channel broadcasted a show featuring poor families who were unable to care for their children. Under Colombian law, any child placed in a public foster institution became eligible for intercountry adoption if their parents or relatives could not take care of them within four months.[1] At the time, Colombia was one of the biggest sending countries for intercountry adoptions, and the programme allegedly discovered that foster institutions received fees from prospective adoptive parents abroad for each child placed. The show characterised Colombia as a “marketplace for the laundering and trafficking of children.”[2] Although the accuracy of these allegations has never been conclusively established, the show triggered public protest and led to government action in April 2012.

Following the media revelations, the Colombian General Inspector, Alejandro Ordónez Maldonado, launched a programme of oversight of the country’s adoption procedures. The initiative aimed to verify whether the Instituto Colombiano de Benestar Familiar (ICBF), the central authority responsible for adoptions, was complying with domestic and international legal standards. A team of twenty-eight inspectors assessed whether child-rights protocols and family-consent requirements were properly followed. This action was explicitly described as preventive and did not identify any specific cases of adoption frauds; its primary focus was to strengthen procedural controls.[3] As part of this initiative, 1,300 files of children previously considered adoptable were re-evaluated and the search for relatives who might assume their care was expanded.[4]

More recently, in November 2025, the Director of ICBF, Astrid Cáceres, announced that the government would reactivate the search to locate children who went missing after the 1985 Armero volcanic disaster. ICBF teams began reviewing the “libro rojo”, the adoption registry from that period, after the government cited “persistent reports of adoptions and kidnappings” following the avalanche.[5] While this renewed investigation does not encompass all intercountry adoptions, but rather focuses on a specific historical event, it represents an effort by Colombian authorities to address past irregularities and to facilitate reunification between separate families.

_______________

[1] ‘Children for trade? Transnational adoptions and a Colombian scandal’ (Governance Across Borders, 16 August 2013) <https://governancexborders.com/2013/08/16/children-for-trade-transnational-adoptions-and-a-colombian-scandal/> accessed 16 November 2025.

[2] ibid

[3] ‘Procuraduría General de la Nación inicia vigilancia superior al Programa de Adopción del Icbf’ (WRadio, 17 April 2012) <https://www.wradio.com.co/noticias/judicial/procuraduria-general-de-la-nacion-inicia-vigilancia-superior-al-programa-de-adopcion-del-icbf/20120417/nota/1671107.aspx> accessed 16 November 2025.

[4] ‘Children for trade? Transnational adoptions and a Colombian scandal’ (Governance Across Borders, 16 August 2013) <https://governancexborders.com/2013/08/16/children-for-trade-transnational-adoptions-and-a-colombian-scandal/> accessed 16 November 2025.

[5] Daniel Esteban Reyes Espinosa, ‘Tragedia de Armero: el Gobierno colombiano reabre la búsqueda de màs de 500 ninos y ninas desaparecidos en Armero’ (Infobae, 8 November 2025) <https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2025/11/08/tragedia-de-armero-el-gobierno-colombiano-reabre-la-busqueda-de-mas-de-500-ninos-y-ninas-desaparecidos-en-armero/> accessed 16 November 2025.