From airport to hospital

The district court in Alipore demanded that Mr Voser return the child to India upon order of an Indian court if the adoption in Switzerland did not come to pass. The court order also stipulated that Mr Voser should send regular reports on the girl's progress and development to the Indian authorities.[FN6 StATG 4'635, 10/13, original Alipore district court order, 1.10.1977.] After the hearing, Milton McCann arranged an Indian passport for Amita. It said that her father was "unknown". There was no space for the mother on the Indian passport as mothers were not listed on Indian passports at the time. [FN7 StATG 4'635, 10/13, certified copy of the Indian passport, issued in Calcutta on 14.11.1977.]

At the start of February 1978, Milton McCann announced that Amita would be able to fly to Switzerland if approval was obtained from another Indian authority by mid-month. This approval took a long time and the departure was postponed. A disappointed Mrs Voser informed Terre des Hommes in Lausanne that her patience was wearing thin.[FN8 StATG 4'635, 10/13, letter from Mrs Voser to Terre des Hommes,13.2.1978.]

The charity asked the Indian embassy in Geneva to speed up the process. Pressure was also exerted on the Indian side to fast-track the procedure in Switzerland. More than once, Mother Teresa herself wrote letters on behalf the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta asking the Swiss Federal Aliens Office to speed up the entry procedures.

The adoption officer at Terre des Hommes in Lausanne had informed the airport that an Air India stewardess would hand Amita over to a woman who would take Amita directly to hospital. This was Jo Millar, who adopted six children from India and who herself began placing Indian children for adoption in 1979.[FN11 https://www.miblou.org/about.html, accessed 3.5.2024.] Ten years later, she would welcome a 400th Indian child to Switzerland at Geneva Airport in the presence of the media.

While Amita was spending her first few days in hospital, Terre des Hommes informed the Thurgau immigration police of her arrival. The charity's adoption officer also informed the guardianship authority in the Vosers' municipality that the girl had been "adopted" in India.[FN12 StATG 4'635, 10/13, letter from employee at Terre des Hommes to foster child inspectorate of guardianship authority, 14.4.1978.] This was incorrect: in accordance with Indian law, the Alipore district court had only ruled that Mr Voser could take custody of Amita and bring her to Switzerland for later adoption.

Terre des Hommes also sent the guardianship authority a declaration by the Vosers in which they committed to provide maintenance and adopt or foster the child for life, no matter what happened. They were also asked to name another couple who would take care of Amita if they were unable to do so.[FN13 StATG 4'635, 10/13, "Erklärung" (declaration) completed by Mr and Mrs Voser, 1.5.1978.] The aid organisation thus signalled that the responsibility lay entirely with the family and that the decision was irrevocable.

The Vosers also agreed in writing to pay for "all claims under public law arising from [the child's] stay" in Switzerland.[FN14 StATG 4'635, 10/13, "Verpflichtung" (declaration of obligation) dated 13.4.1978, enclosed with the letter from Terre des Hommes to the foster child inspectorate of the municipal guardianship authority, 14.4.1978.] The charity covered its bases with a specific clause that said if the Swiss authorities demanded certified official documentation of information about the child and the child's biological parents, for example during the adoption proceedings, this must to be obtained by the foster parents.

Amita's official personal details had in fact been missing all along. The Vosers thus turned to Terre des Hommes for more information: "Unfortunately, [the child's] exact date of birth is unknown to us."[FN15 StATG 4'635, 10/13, letter from Mrs Voser to Terre des Hommes (undated, attached to the declaration of obligation dated 14.4.1978).]

That is when the family learned that the child was roughly two years old. The child's surname and place of birth were missing. In place of this information, the forms simply said "unknown". The Vosers therefore took on a number of obligations with regard to a child whose identity was completely unknown.

In the summer of 1978, a few months after Amita's arrival, Milton McCann, who placed children for adoption in Switzerland on behalf of Terre des Hommes in Lausanne, was investigated by the Indian authorities along with the Missionaries of Charity (Sisters of Mother Teresa). They had been accused by an Indian newspaper of child trafficking and of working together to bring 18 children – including Amita – to Switzerland for the purposes of scientific research.

The accusation that Indian children in Switzerland were being used as "cobayes de recherche", or guinea pigs for research purposes sparked a diplomatic incident. The accusation levelled at Terre des Hommes should be seen in the context of the charity's routine placement of children in 'quarantine'. In Amita's case, a series of pharmacological tests were indeed carried out on the child for research purposes. This was not, however, human experimentation[FN16 Iris Ritzmann, Iris Ritzmann, medical-historical review of paediatric case history 1978, 2023.]  as suggested by the Indian press through its use of the word 'guinea pig'.

The Indian authorities asked the Missionaries of Charity for the addresses of the Swiss couples who were to welcome the 18 children into their homes. They announced that they would send a team of detectives to find out how the children were faring in Switzerland.[FN17 https://dodis.ch/52022, accessed 3.5.2024.] Milton McCann told the Swiss embassy that the police had already visited the Terre des Hommes centre in Calcutta on two occasions.[FN18 https://dodis.ch/52022, accessed 3.5.2024.] It is not clear from the correspondence between the two countries whether the Indian authorities in Switzerland pursued the investigations further.

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Instead, attempts were made to calm the situation through diplomatic channels. With the support of Terre des Hommes, the Indian consulate in Geneva created an opportunity to discreetly enquire after the children's well-being by inviting the Swiss parents and Indian children to celebrate Divali in Geneva.[FN19 StATG 4'635, 10/13, letter from an employee at Terre des Hommes to the Voser family, September 1978, n.d.]

Despite this scandal, Terre des Hommes Lausanne continued to work with the Missionaries of Charity and Milton McCann. It was years later, when he was accused of paedophilia, that the charity stopped working with him. In 1996, Terre des Hommes broke off the collaboration and launched legal proceedings. McCann died in 2011 without having been brought to justice. The charity now seeks to distance itself from its collaboration with McCann and emphasises that Terre des Hommes (India) Society has always legally been a "completely independent" organisation.[FN20 Letter from Terre des Hommes to research team, 9.1.2023.]