The children sent to a DR Congo 'holiday camp' never to come back
By Joanna Heywood Brussels
14 August 2019
A court in Belgium is investigating an orphanage for alleged abduction and trafficking of children from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Children were brought to Belgium and adopted by families who had been told they were orphans. Years later, DNA tests have proved that in some cases they were not.

Hundreds of miles north of DR Congo's capital, Kinshasa, is the village of Gemena. Most people make a living from agriculture or fishing; others are carpenters or shopkeepers.

Abdula Libenge, a 34-year-old tailor, is the father of one of four families in the area who in May 2015 sent a child away to Kinshasa on what they thought was a holiday camp.

Their children never came back. Without access to legal representation or assistance from local authorities, all they could do was wait.

About two years after Mr Libenge's daughter disappeared, he received an unexpected visit that would finally shed light on what happened.

Belgian journalists Kurt Wertelaers and Benoit de Freine had got wind of an inquiry beginning into adoption fraud in their country...
Full article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48948774

Tragic situation for all involved.

What will happen to the children?
A Belgian family court will ultimately decide on the children's future.

"It's case by case, but any solution should depend enormously on what the child says. We can't just go about taking decisions on what we think is good for a child without getting that child's opinion," explains Mr Cantwell.

For everyone involved the next stage will be hard, and Mr Beauthier says the adoptive parents are preparing themselves for it.

"There is this human reflex which is to say 'no, no. This is my child, I won't let her go.' No. That would be unacceptable, and my clients understand this full well."

For one adoptive father there is no good outcome.

"We really ask ourselves: what is best for this child? And we don't have the answer. But there isn't really an answer. We're all losers in this story."

In Gemena, Abdula Libenge had little hope of his daughter coming home.

"I know people will say that she is better off in Belgium. And you know, maybe she is, but I don't think it was up to anyone else to make that choice. And we didn't get one."