David and Ally, a Singaporean couple, are confronting the agonizing possibility of losing their adopted son, Marcus, years after he became part of their family. Marcus, adopted from Indonesia, is now believed to have been trafficked into Singapore, placing his future with his adoptive parents in jeopardy.
Their plight is part of a larger scandal involving at least 20 babies allegedly bought illegally in Indonesia for adoption in Singapore in recent years. This high-profile case has led to the arrest of nearly two dozen people last year, who are currently on trial in West Java for alleged human trafficking.
The situation means authorities in both Singapore and Indonesia may soon have to decide the fate of Marcus and other children, many of whom have spent most of their lives in Singapore. The critical question remains whether these children will stay with their adoptive families or be returned to their biological parents in Indonesia. Neither country has yet announced a definitive plan for the children.
For David and Ally, the past few months have been filled with immense anxiety. David expressed their constant fear, stating, “The anxiety is always there, at the back of our minds. There’s always the thought that Marcus might be taken away.”
The couple had always desired children, but after Ally experienced several painful miscarriages, they turned to adoption. They faced a lengthy wait for a Singaporean child, with one agency assigning them a queue number of 142. Like many Singaporeans in similar circumstances, they looked overseas; an estimated two-thirds of children adopted in Singapore annually are born abroad, typically in neighboring countries.
David and Ally chose a local agency specializing in Indonesian adoptions. Weeks later, they saw Marcus, then a tiny infant, during a video call arranged by the agency. David recalled, “For me it was love at first sight… He’s very smart! He smiled at us.” They paid tens of thousands of dollars, a sum they were told covered agency fees, legal costs, child expenses, and a “token sum” for the biological parents. Within months, Marcus was brought to Singapore, and his adoption was swiftly approved.
The couple’s lives were upended when they applied for Marcus’s citizenship. Instead of the expected good news, immigration officials informed them that the application was suspended due to the possibility that Marcus had been trafficked. David recounted his shock, saying, “That’s when I burst.” He questioned the Singaporean government’s oversight, stating, “‘Didn’t you do your due diligence? You did all the checks, right? You put us through a tough but necessary process, that is why we abided to it’. They could not answer us.”
The case has cast a spotlight on the persistent issue of child trafficking in Indonesia, often driven by parents selling their children. It also raises concerns about how Singapore, known for its stringent controls and meticulous checks, allegedly failed to detect the trafficking and even approved some of these adoptions.
In West Java, 19 individuals, predominantly women, are currently on trial. They face accusations of illegally purchasing children, transferring them overseas for “exploitation,” and forging documents to legitimize the adoptions. Under Indonesian law, human trafficking includes paying for and transferring a person for exploitation. Prosecutors allege the defendants bypassed Indonesia’s strict transnational adoption rules.
Court proceedings have revealed that at least 12 of the 20 babies implicated in the scheme had already entered Singapore, though Singaporean authorities have not confirmed these figures to the BBC. An Indonesian woman named Lie Siu Luan, who is among the defendants, is alleged to be the ringleader. She has admitted to supplying babies for adoption to at least four Singaporean contacts, who reportedly promised to pay a minimum of 18,000 Singapore dollars (approximately $14,000; £10,300) for each child.
Lie is accused of recruiting brokers to source babies, care for the infants, and forge necessary documents. These brokers allegedly used social media to find parents willing to give up their babies. In one instance, a broker reportedly posed as an adoptive mother to persuade a man to surrender his newborn son. Once procured, the infants were taken to a house in Pontianak, where hired nannies cared for them. Lie also allegedly hired someone specifically to forge birth certificates and adoption documents. Some members of the trafficking ring reportedly pretended to be the babies’ biological parents on paper and participated in video calls with prospective adopters. Prosecutors are seeking jail sentences ranging from five to ten years for the defendants.
