Ian’s parents left him in Africa. Will he ever get Swiss citizenship?

Ian van Rooyen in a chapel in canton Graubünden in 2024, during the first – and to date only – visit he has made to his birth parents in Switzerland. Courtesy

Ian van Rooyen was born in Bulawayo, as the country then known as Rhodesia was in the grips of a civil war. His parents, a young Swiss couple, gave him up for adoption. Today, he is fighting for the right to return to Switzerland. But his path is blocked by the law.

Rhodesia in the 1970s was, along with South Africa, “the last white bastion in southern Africa, where 270,000 whites hold say over 5.8 million blacks,” the German weekly Der SpiegelExternal link wrote in 1976. Some 660 Swiss-Rhodesians were living in the country at the time, according to a 1978 report by Swiss public television SRF. But the bastion was crumbling, and civil war was spreading across the country.

Amidst this turmoil, a 20-year-old Swiss man and a 17-year-old Swiss woman arrived in the country now known as Zimbabwe in pursuit of a job opportunity. “I had barely 200 South African rand to my name,” Christine* says today. This was around CHF500 ($630) at the time. Her grandmother sent her money for a wedding dress, she remembers. Christine, now 66, grew up in South Africa as a Swiss expatriate.

Hans* had arrived from Switzerland a few months earlier. What hardly anyone knew at the time was that 17-year-old Christine was pregnant. In September 1977, as fighting engulfed the country, the young Swiss woman gave birth to a baby boy in the Rhodesian city of Bulawayo.

Too young for a child

But the couple felt they were too young to look after their child. The future in southern Africa was uncertain. So they decided to put their son up for adoption.

“We were practically penniless. We were vagabonds,” Christine says over the phone. “I was sure the baby would be better off if he didn’t stay with us.” Giving him up, though, was a wrench. Nobody knew what they were going through; there was no one there to support them. 

This chapter of their lives remained closed for many years. The past still weighs heavily on the biological parents. Even now, Christine finds it hard to talk about.

Shortly after their baby was born, the young Swiss couple moved on to Botswana, “partly to avoid being drafted into the Rhodesian army”, Christine explains. After all, it was not their war.

An armed guard on patrol on the golf course at the Leopard Rock Hotel in Rhodesia in 1978. Eddie Adams / AP/ Keystone

After two years in Botswana the couple moved again, this time to Switzerland – temporarily, or at least that was the plan. “I never thought we’d end up staying,” Christine says. In Switzerland, the couple had two more children. They still call Switzerland home today.

Meanwhile, the little Swiss boy stayed in Rhodesia, where he was officially adopted by a Rhodesian couple when he was seven months old. He grew up as Ian van Rooyen, together with an adoptive sister, in a Christian family. The family first lived in Rhodesia, before moving to South Africa, where Ian now lives with his wife and three children – including a grown-up son with a rare neurological disorder. A biomedical technologist by profession, Ian also holds a degree in theology.

Searching for his roots

The now 48-year-old South African is sitting in his office in Mbombela, a city near the border with Mozambique, at the end of the working day. “It is what it is,” he says, referring to the twists and turns of his life. Although he always knew that he was adopted as a child, for a long time he felt no need to look for his biological parents. This changed after the birth of his third child over six years ago.

It then struck him with full force what overwhelming love parents feel for their offspring. “I thought, if I feel like this about this child, then surely my parents might feel that way about me,” he says. He wanted to find this out. 

So he began to search for his roots. Around a year and a half ago, he finally received a life-changing email from an agency: his parents had been found. After nearly five decades, he got a first glimpse at his birth certificate. He learned that his biological parents were Swiss citizens and living in Switzerland.

One week later – it was early 2024 – Ian spoke to his mother on the phone for the first time. Two months later, he flew from South Africa to Switzerland to meet his biological parents and siblings. The first meeting was emotional, but also cautious, says Ian.

“I am so grateful to have him back in my life,” his birth mother says. She had long given up all hope of ever seeing him again.

Long-suppressed past

When speaking about the past, Ian is circumspect. His reappearance has sparked not just feelings of joy in his biological family. This he can well understand. His faith helps him to cope with the situation.

“It’s not easy for anyone,” Christine admits. This is one reason why she does not want her real name to be disclosed. “I suppressed the past for so long.” Otherwise, the pain of giving up her first-born would have been too great. As a result, even her youngest child knew nothing of the existence of an older brother. 

At the same time, both Ian and his parents are overjoyed to have found each other again. “Christine and Hans come to visit us regularly in South Africa,” Ian says. At the time of writing, his biological father was due to visit again soon, to celebrate Ian’s birthday together.

The dream of living in Switzerland

However, Ian dreams of moving to Switzerland with his family. “I want to live closer to them,” he says, referring to his biological parents, and adds that he wants to be part of the extended family. Keeping in touch by telephone is difficult, Ian says: “Long-distance relationships are inevitably doomed to fail.”

Together with his biological mother, he has taken legal steps to obtain Swiss citizenship, or at least a residence permit. They hope that a precedent like the case of Cate Riley – a Swiss adoptee in Australia, about whom Swissinfo recently reported – could help.

Read the story of Cate Riley here:

Ian says he’s heard that obtaining Swiss nationality or even a residence permit is not easy. “But I believe where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he says.

His hopes were recently dashed, however. His lawyer and his birth mother had a meeting with officials from the cantonal migration office: they were told there is currently no legal possibility for Ian to obtain Swiss citizenship. This is to be confirmed in writing in the coming days. 

A closed door

“We are fighting against the law,” says Christine. It is a difficult undertaking for several reasons. Firstly, she explains, Ian’s birth was never registered with a Swiss authority; and secondly, only “full adoptions” were possible at the time, meaning that all legal ties to the biological parents were severed.

Nor can the authorities refer to a comparable case – not even Riley’s, as the law was different in the early 1970s, when Cate was adopted in Australia. “Even if Ian was Swiss for the first seven months of his life, this makes no difference,” his mother says. He may have found his roots, but building a future in Switzerland will not be easy.

Even getting a residence permit could be an uphill battle. As a third-country national without a specifically sought-after profession, Ian has little chance of obtaining an entry visa. The fact that he is of Swiss parentage is irrelevant.

Ian’s story is moving – but this does not change the law. “The law clearly knows no humanity,” Christine says sadly. Ian takes this setback in his stride. He firmly believes that another door will open soon. “It is what it is,” he says.

Edited by Balz Rigendinger. Adapted from German by Julia Bassam/gw.

* Real name withheld by request