Up to 8,000 children were stolen from their mothers to be adopted by foreign couples during Chile’s military dictatorship years, investigators claim.

Some 20,000 Chilean children were adopted to Western nations such as the U.S., the UK and Sweden, in the 1970s and 80s, of which the government believe a majority were illegally removed from their biological families.

A government investigation launched earlier this year has so far found that more than 3,205 babies and young children are likely to have been stolen, but this is expected to multiply as it continues.

Stolen: Maria Diemar and Tommy Leite, now in their 40s, were both stolen from their mothers in the late 1970s and taken to Sweden for adoption, and thousands of other children believed to have suffered the same fate were sent to the US and the UK

In October this year, Justice Minister Hernán Larraín told parliament the news that children may have been illegally adopted from had made him ‘feel a great shame for my country’.

‘The criminal investigation cannot currently state that all cases where children have been sent abroad for adoption are illegal, but a very large part are,’ the Santiago Court of Appeals said in a statement, adding that they fear it would be at least 8,000 suspicious cases.

‘No similar crime has ever been investigated in Chile, neither by the courts of by police. The kind of crime which are closest to this are investigations linked to crimes against human rights in a political violence context.’

The around 20,000 children who were taken out of Chile between 1973 and 1990 were adopted by families in more than 15 countries, but most commonly the United States.

The investigation by Judge Mario Carroza has grown from some 500 cases earlier this year to 3,205 cases as of last month.

Crimes against humanity: Judge Mario Carroza, pictured with Ms Diemar earlier this year, is investigating thousands of potential illegal adoptions in Chile carried out

Centre of a scandal: Many of the children adopted by Swedish couples during the late 1970s and early 1980s came from around the city of Temuco

In the initial report published in February, the Chilean authorities were able to break down where the children had disappeared to, revealed that more than 400 had been adopted by couples in the U.S.

The incriminating documents regarding the ‘irregular’ adoptions reveal a network of social workers, lawyers, translators and international adoption agencies.

Reunited: Mr Leite is pictured with his biological mother Marisol

In some cases, mothers received an ‘economic contribution’ in exchange for transferring the legal guardianship of their children to adoption agencies, the February report notes.

Witness statements from both adoptees and biological parents reveal that others were taken from their families without permission.

Children adopted to Sweden in the late 1970s who have traced their heritage in Chile as adults have discovered horrific tales of abuse, where one young mother was told her baby had died in hospital shortly after giving birth, and grieved for her son for 41 years before finding out earlier this year that he was alive.

Another single mother asked social workers for support, and was offered help with day care - only to be told that he son was gone when she came back to pick him up.

The paperwork which has accompanied the children to their new home country has given no indication that they were anything but handed over voluntarily.

So far, the Chilean government has found 630 cases of children adopted to Sweden during the Pinochet dictatorship who are thought to have been stolen or otherwise illegally obtained.

For the majority of the Pinochet dictatorship, until 1988, so-called 'strong' adoptions could only be carried out after a child had been living with their adoptive parents for two years.

This rule was bypassed by awarding the foreign parents-to-be temporary custody through a representative for the adoption agency.

The temporary custodian could then legally take the child out of the country, after which the child would be adopted in a foreign country such as Sweden, the U.S or the UK.

Shocking: This hospital in Temuco is one several where it is known that children were taken from their mothers shortly after they had given birth

Protesters from the organisation Los Hijos y Madres del Silencio, meaning The Silent Children and Mothers, whose member say their children were stolen from them and adopted by Western couples stand outside the Court of Appeals in Santiago

However, as far as the Chilean authorities are concerned, many of these children, who are now adults in the late 30s or early 40s, still live in Chile on the addresses of social workers or adoption agency representatives awarded 'temporary custody' through the courts.

‘I only recently found out that our adoptions in Sweden were never recognised in Chile,’ says Bonnie Berggren, 40, who was adopted from Chile in the late 1970s and grew up in Stockholm, Sweden.

‘As far as Chile is concerned, I'm still a Chilean citizen living in Padre Las Casas outside Temuco in south Chile, and was never adopted by anyone. My adoption was never approved.

‘I have two identities. One Bonnie alive and well in Padre Las Casas, and one in Stockholm. And no one ever told us. I found out at the age of 40.

'Many people think that those of us who are critical of adoptions had a bad upbringing - that is categorically not true. I had a wonderful, loving upbringing - it's got nothing to do with that.

‘I was deported. I was torn from my family, my country, my culture, my language, and that was never nurtured. We've been expected to just be Swedish because someone paid money to get a child. Imported like goods.'

Thousands of adults all over the world are still registered as having been in 'temporary custody' of ‘guardians’ until they reached adulthood, many likely unaware of their second identities in Chile.

The investigation is ongoing.