by Hélène Chevallier
June 10, 2020
The adoption agency against which 9 people adopted in Mali in the 1990s complained had already been involved in an illegal adoption case this time in Peru in the early 1980s.
Rayon de Soleil had already been involved in an illegal adoption case © AFP / Patricia de Melo Moreira
After a year-long investigation , Le Monde in partnership with TV5 Le Monde revealed on Monday that several people adopted from Mali in the 90s had filed a complaint against the association “Rayon de soleil du enfant d’étrangères”. The adoption agency would have used “schemes” to adopt children “who, according to the law, should not have been adopted” writes the daily.
This complaint is brought by the association “The Voice of Adoptees” whose co-founder Céline Giraud herself was the victim of an illegal adoption in Peru in 1980. The story she tells in the book “I was stolen from my parents” published in 2005. The adoptive parents of the little girl, then 6 days old, at the time also had recourse to the organisation “Rayon de Soleil de l’Enfant étranger”.
It is by searching for her biological mother in the 2000s that Céline Giraud discovers that she was in fact abducted just like twenty other babies by a couple who then proposed them for adoption. “In my investigation, I discovered in the transcripts of the Peruvian Justice that ‘Rayon de Soleil’ had asked if these intermediaries had a license to do adoptions. The Peruvian authorities answered them no and that you should not arrange adoptions with them. The guilt was already there. “Arrested in November 1981, those responsible for trafficking were sentenced in 1984. Although cited in the case, “Rayon de Soleil” was not prosecuted.
After these revelations, the organisation stops its mission in Peru but did not notify the parents of Céline Giraud. “They made the choice not to warn the adoptive families believing that it was not necessary and that it would cause more trouble than anything else .”
Her parents were finally received by “Rayon de soleil de l’Enfant Etrangère” in 2017, 37 years after the facts. The organisation’s licence has never been questioned.
Céline Giraud is campaigning today for a debate to be opened on these illegal or irregular adoptions and for the victims, the adopted children and their adoptive parents, to be accompanied.
Rayon de Soleil de lEnfant Etrangère reacts, on its site, to the investigation of the Le Monde. The organisation refutes “any participation in any capacity whatsoever in trafficking in human beings, and holds at the disposal of justice all the documents and documents relating to these adoptions. The association reserves the right to take any action to preserve their rights and those of its members.”
