So far some 500 people have told their story to a special forced adoption hotline set up by the justice ministry and launched on October 1, broadcaster NOS reports

The register is collecting information about women who were made to hand over their children to officials between 1956 and 1984 because they were unmarried.

Of the 500 callers around half were children who said their mothers were forced to put them up for adoption while a quarter came from mothers who had been pressurised into parting with their child, often by family or the church. The remaining calls came from fathers and health professionals.

Figures from Radbout University show some 15,000 children were adopted during this period. The information via the hotline will form part of the inquiry announced by junior justice minister Sander Dekker into the circumstances under which unmarried women parted with their babies, and the role the authorities played.

‘The number of people who have now come forward shows the scale of the problem,’ Dekker told the broadcaster. ‘I hope more people tell their story. It will help complete the picture.’

‘We have to find out why that was happening. We need an answer to that question. It is important for all those mothers and children who want recognition for their problem and the grief they have had to carry with them all that time.’

The register will be open until June.