The Dutch government said Monday that it was suspending adoptions from abroad after an official inquiry found a host of illegal acts including child trafficking.
The move came after the report criticised the role of the government in adoptions from Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh from 1967 to 1998.
The investigation found "different types of structural abuses" including Dutch officials overlooking falsified documents, fraud, and corruption.
It also included acts such as "allowing people to renounce children under false pretences or under moral pressure".
"It is painful to conclude that the government has not done what was expected of it," Legal Protection Minister Sander Dekker said in a statement.
"Although many adoptions have been experienced as positive, the government should have taken a more active role by intervening in cases where there were abuses."
He added: "Apologies are in order for this attitude of the government."
The Netherlands announced the opening of the inquiry in December 2018.
The investigation was sparked by a freedom of information request about one adoption case from Brazil, which then raised questions about a number of others in various countries.
At the time the government said Dutch couples allegedly travelled to Brazil, pretended that Brazilian children were their own, and then took them back to the Netherlands.
Dutch police investigated the matter in the early 1980s and found 42 examples of "criminal acts" but the cases were dismissed.