International adoptions have long been marred by scandal. A government inquiry has confirmed serious abuse and legal uncertainty, and several left-wing activists are accusing Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of personal responsibility for ignoring warnings about child trafficking and corruption.
The Nordic TImes recently reported that government investigator Anna Singer is proposing a total ban on international adoptions to Sweden. The proposal comes after a government inquiry found that the practice has been marred by widespread abuses for a long time.
Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Grönvall has also acknowledged that it is clear that “children and parents have suffered and been harmed for decades within the framework of international adoption”. The conclusion is that the system has neither been able to protect children nor functioned in a legally secure manner.
Kristersson is also being criticized for his role in a system that allowed the adoption of children from Asia – children who in many cases are suspected of having been kidnapped from their families before being brought to the West. This has been highlighted by Fria Tider, among others.
Adoptions from China doubled
Ulf Kristersson was chairman of Adoptionscentrum (AC) between 2003 and 2005 – a period when the number of adoptions from China to Sweden doubled. Almost all children adopted from China came from similar backgrounds: they were reported to have been found abandoned on the street, with no known names or identities.
More than 20 years ago, Dagens Nyheter reported that Chinese children were being bought from hospitals and then sold on, including to Swedish adoptive families. According to DN’s investigation, this was happening on an organized scale.
The Adoptionscentrum’s then information officer, Margret Josefsson, has stated that this information was also passed on to Kristersson – without any action being taken.
Accusations of a cover-up
Adopted Korean race activist and Expo founder Tobias Hübinette writes in DN Debatt that Kristersson was warned on several occasions about suspected human trafficking from China and Chile – but chose to silence the information.
“Adoptionscentrum assured adoptive parents who had already adopted Chinese children, as well as prospective parents who were in the process of adopting from China, that the adoptions were above board”.
Idag ställer jag Kristersson till svars på DN Debatt: https://t.co/NwOekdm8hW
Kristersson måste be om ursäkt och erkänna att staten liksom han själv har gjort sig skyldig till medhjälp till människohandelsbrott och till att ha brutit mot de adopterades mänskliga rättigheter. pic.twitter.com/Q6UIyqDmqT
— Tobias Hübinette (@TobiasHubinette) June 3, 2025
“During Kristersson’s chairmanship, international adoption peaked worldwide with around 40,000 adoptions to some 20 Western countries per year, mainly due to adoptions from China. However, as early as the 2000s, journalists and authorities in China revealed that international adoptions had degenerated into child trafficking, and Kristersson was aware of this, but nevertheless chose to allow AC (Adoptionscentrum) to double the number of adoptions from China to Sweden, and he himself has adopted three children from China”, he previously wrote on his blog.
Kristersson has also been accused of obstructing a government investigation into corruption in international adoptions. Among other things, the investigation wanted to limit aid and private “gifts” which, according to reports, were used as bribes in the countries of origin.
“Will he be held accountable?”
Left-wing activist and former Expo editor Lisa Bjurwald has also criticized Kristersson. In an editorial in VLT, she writes:
“Despite the alarms about stolen children, Ulf Kristersson allowed the trafficking of foreign children to not only continue but increase to its highest levels ever“.
“What exactly did he know – and will he be held accountable?” she asks.
Bjurwald points out that it is difficult to determine exactly how much Kristersson knew about the suspected human trafficking and illegal adoptions. However, she believes it is clear that the adoptions during this period were not always carried out in an ethically defensible manner, and that it was not ensured that each child was actually in need of a new family.
“It is not only the adopted men and women who need answers, but the entire Swedish people. Every dirty aspect of international adoptions must be brought to light”, she concludes.
