Image copyright Getty Images Image caption DR Congo has Africa's biggest number of orphans, from war and outbreaks of disease (file pic)

Belgian authorities have asked for DNA samples of children adopted from the Democratic Republic of Congo to establish if their biological parents are still alive, reports say.

They have contacted the adoptive parents of some 15 children to find out if the youngsters were kidnapped, according to Belgian newspapers.

Prosecutors suspect the parents thought they were sending their children to a Kinshasa holiday camp not an orphanage.

The orphanage has since been shut down.

"There are only losers in this story and the judge will have to determine where the best interests of the kids lie," Flemish MP Lorin Parys told the BBC.

What happened to the children?

Thousands of African children have been adopted in recent years from countries including Ethiopia and Uganda.

Fears of child-smuggling in DR Congo prompted the central African country to halt exit permits for adopted children in 2013. Some cases continued to go through because they had already begun.

DR Congo has one of the highest rates of orphaned children, but it emerged in 2017 that four children who had been adopted in Belgium had been falsely declared as orphans. All four had been aged between two and four when they were taken to Belgium from the Tumaini orphanage in Kinshasa.

A team of Belgian journalists traced the children's parents to a town about 850km (530 miles) from the capital Kinshasa. The parents said their children had been given the opportunity of going with a young organisation to a holiday camp but had never returned.

Why have new cases emerged?

Since the original four cases emerged, Belgian authorities have investigated a series of adoptions of children who came from the Tumaini orphanage. All 15 are thought to have come to Belgium between 2013 and 2015.

A spokesman for Belgium's public prosecutor said couples had been contacted with a request for an expert to conduct a DNA test on their adopted child, Nieuwsblad reports.

Belgium's judiciary has strong indications that the children's parents are still alive. Like the four other children, the parents are thought to have sent their youngsters to the Tumaini orphanage under the assumption that they were going to a holiday camp.

"They are different age ranges but the kids who've been here the shortest time have been here three and a half years, so they have all been integrated," explained Mr Parys, an MP with the N-VA party in the Flemish parliament.

"The parents here have done nothing wrong and of course the parents in Congo are devastated that they lost their kids under false pretences."

Belgian-Congolese lawyer Julienne Mpemba has been investigated for her role as head of the orphanage. Her lawyer was unavailable for comment on Tuesday, however he has in the past declared that she is innocent.

Georges-Henri Beauthier, a lawyer representing three of the adoptive families, said the DNA tests would not change anything.

"No-one I know is arguing that the children here came here in a network with false papers," he told Belgian public broadcaster RTBF. "What my clients have been calling for for two and a half years is that those who are the true heads of these networks are questioned and arrested and answer for their actions."</s>Congolese children were allegedly kidnapped, taken to an orphanage and put up for adoption in Belgium after their parents were tricked into sending them to a holiday camp, it has emerged.

Congolese children were allegedly kidnapped, taken to an orphanage and put up for adoption in Belgium after their parents were tricked into sending them to a holiday camp, it has emerged.

Children adopted after parents were tricked, told they were going to 'holiday camp'

Belgian prosecutors have been asking around 15 families for DNA samples from their adopted children in a bid to trace their biological parents.

The adoptive families had been led to believe that the biological parents were dead.

Lorin Parys, a Flemish politician with an adopted son, said: "This is a drama. How do you explain such things to those children? Not to mention the pain the real parents must feel."

The demand for DNA applies to Congolese children adopted in Belgium from November 2013. Prosecutors want to find out the extent of any trafficking to Belgium, which colonised a region of Africa, including the present day Democratic Republic of Congo. Investigators have identified at least four cases where a Congolese child adopted in Belgium had living biological parents thousands of kilometres away.

The parents, who lived in the countryside, were persuaded to send their children to a holiday camp in the capital, Kinshasa. But the children were instead put in the Tumaini orphanage, which investigators found had recently been hastily closed. The children were then flown from there to Belgium.</s>Belgian authorities have asked for DNA samples of children adopted from the Democratic Republic of Congo to...</s>Congolese children were kidnapped, taken to an orphanage and put up for adoption in Belgium after their parents were tricked into sending them to a holiday camp, it has emerged.

Belgian prosecutors have officially asked "about 15" families for DNA samples from their adopted children in a bid to trace their biological parents. The adoptive families had thought the biological parents were dead.

“This is a drama. How do you explain such things to those children? Not to mention the pain that real parents must feel in the Congo ", Lorin Parys, a Flemish politician with an adopted son, told the Het Nieuwsblad newspaper.

The DNA demand applies to all Congolese children adopted in Belgium from November 2013 and comes as an 18 month investigation builds up a head of steam.

Prosecutors want the tests to find out the extent of the trafficking in Congolese children to Belgium, which infamously colonised a region including the present day Democratic Republic of Congo.

Investigators have identified at least four cases where a Congolese child adopted in Belgium had living biological parents thousands of miles away. The parents, who lived in the countryside, were convinced to send their children to a holiday camp in the capital Kinshasa.</s>Belgium was shaken by allegations over 15 Congolese children who were kidnapped, taken to an orphanage and put up for adoption by Belgian families after their parents were tricked into sending them to a holiday camp. The investigation was ordered to find out the extent of the child-smuggling network from DR Congo to Belgium, which infamously colonized a region including the present day Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to local Belgian news outlets, children's Belgian families were contacted as part of an investigation and were asked for DNA samples from their adopted children in a bid to trace their biological parents. The DNA demand applies to all Congolese children adopted by Belgian families from November 2013.

"This is a drama. How do you explain such things to those children? Not to mention the pain that real parents must feel in the Congo," Lorin Parys, a Flemish politician with an adopted son, told the Het Nieuwsblad newspaper, as reported by the Telegraph.

The Tumaini orphanage has been closed for some time. In recent years, thousands of African children have been adopted, including Ethiopian and Ugandans.

DR Congo has one of the highest rates of orphaned children. Four Congolese children who had been adopted in Belgium had been falsely declared as orphans, according to reports revealed in 2017. All four had been aged between 2 and 4 when they were taken to Belgium from the Tumaini orphanage in Kinshasa.</s>Belgian officials have requested DNA samples from children adopted from the Democratic Republic of Congo to determine if they were falsely declared orphans and kidnapped, BBC reports.

The adoptive parents of around 15 children have been contacted, according to officials.

Prosecutors suspect the biological parents thought their kids were going to a holiday camp, not to an orphanage that has since been shuttered.

“There are only losers in this story and the judge will have to determine where the best interests of the kids lie,” Flemish MP Lorin Parys told the BBC.

While Congo has among the highest rates of orphaned kids, it stopped issuing exit permits for adoptions in 2013 amid trafficking concerns, according to BBC. Cases underway at the time were still processed.

Belgian authorities began investigating child-smuggling from the central African nation in 2017 when a report revealed four adopted children had falsely been declared orphans. Belgian journalists traced the cases back to biological parents who said their children never returned from what was billed as a youth camp. The kids, who were between the ages of two and four at the time, were instead taken to the Tumaini orphanage.

After the 2017 report, Belgian officials looked into all the country’s adoptions from the Tumaini orphanage. The 15 cases involved children who arrived between 2013 and 2015, and whose biological parents are believed to still be alive, BBC reports.

“They are different age ranges but the kids who’ve been here the shortest time have been here three and a half years, so they have all been integrated,” said Parys. “The parents here have done nothing wrong and of course the parents in Congo are devastated that they lost their kids under false pretenses.”
Belgian authorities order DNA tests of children recently adopted from the Democratic Republic of the Congo following reports that several parents thought they were sending their children to a Kinshasa holiday camp not an orphanage.