The Swedish organization Adoptionscentrum lacked control over where the children who were adopted to Sweden came from.

Nevertheless, the data on stolen children has been constantly rejected over the years. 

A recurring explanation has been that mothers have post-constructed their stories - because they feel guilt and shame when they have been approached by their adult children.

But in Chile, Mission Review meets families who are still searching for their missing sons and daughters.

"They tricked me"

Sara Jineo says that her son Camilo was only a few days old when he was kidnapped from a hospital in Temuco. 

She says that a woman unknown to her contacted her already during the pregnancy.

The woman asked questions about how many children she had, but Sara Jineo explained that she and her husband had no problem supporting their large family.

READ MORE: The

mother thought the sons were dead

When she visited the hospital with her newborn son, she was introduced to a social worker.

- They took my baby and went in with him.

"You do not have to come in," said the woman.

There was a sign: "No entry."

I started to despair, it had already been half an hour.

I asked for my child.

It was a nurse who passed by.

“My child is in there with the social worker.

"They say he is seriously ill, I want to know," I said.

She opened the door.

"There is nothing here," she said.

They tricked me, says Sara Jineo.

That was the last time she saw her son.

She says she ran to the police, but that they thought she was crazy.

"My mother suffered a lot"

The family belongs to the native Mapuche.

Today, it is known that many of the Swedish adopted children come from Mapuche areas around Temuco, in the southern parts of Chile. 

Therefore, the family suspects that the son Camilo is somewhere in Sweden.

- I was a girl at this time, 13 years old.

It was a very difficult day for the family when all this happened.

My mother suffered a lot during this period, says daughter Sonia Collinau Jineo.

Listen to Dad's letter

The family is not alone in believing that their missing children may be in Sweden.

Verónica Campos and Italo Vaccaro say that their children were taken from them directly at birth in a hospital in Chile, 1984. 

They say they were told the child was dead and when they asked to see the body, they were told that the body had been donated for research.

In the clip below, you can see when Italo Vaccaro reads aloud from his letter to their missing children.

The Adoption Center writes in an email to Assignment review that if the investigation in Chile concludes that their employees "acted inappropriately or illegally based on the laws and rules of the time, we must take a position on it then".

They also write that it was the courts in Chile that were responsible for a sufficient investigation of the children's background and that there was never any indication that there was criminal activity during their years in Chile.

In the spring of 2021, after Dagens Nyheter also examined adoptions to Sweden, Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren announced that the government is opening up for a Swedish review of the adoptions. 

"The Stolen Children", a series in four parts from Assignment Review, is available on SVT Play.