ILLEGAL adoption allegations "must be included" in a Department of Health-directed review of mother and baby homes, following disturbing reports of a Co Down institution.
A BBC Radio `File on Four' investigation, `The Lost Children of Marianvale' broadcast last night found evidence that laws may have been broken and birth certificates falsified in the adoption of babies born in the Newry mother and baby home to families in the Republic of Ireland and US.
It identified cases of more than 100 babies born there were taken out of Northern Ireland for adoption.
One baby's birth was registered in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the US - each time with different birth dates and places of birth.
Sinn Féin assembly member Linda Dillon said the claims were "no surprise".
The Mid-Ulster representative said: "In my engagements with many who have been through the mother and baby homes it became clear that the rights of mothers and children were routinely ignored by those in authority.
"The issue of multiple birth certificates and children being routinely moved to other countries has been a key feature in what survivors have spoken about.
"I have made it clear to the Department of Health, the sponsor department for the review of the mother and baby homes, that the whole issue of the removal of children from their mothers without consent must be a part of their work.
"There is a clear onus on everyone who has information about what took place in the Mother and Baby homes to bring it forward to help end the anguish that so many families are still suffering."
Amnesty International has again called for "an independent investigation into the allegations of systemic human rights abuses at these institutions", including the new allegations.
Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan said women have told them how "they suffered arbitrary detention, forced labour, ill-treatment, and the removal and forced adoption of their babies - criminal acts in both domestic and international law".
"Amnesty has previously provided the Northern Ireland Executive with information about cases of forced adoption and falsified documentation, such as those now being highlighted by the BBC," he said.
Women who were forced to give birth in mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland, and children who were born in the homes, have previously called for a public inquiry into abuses they say they suffered there.
Oonagh McAleer says she was forced into Marianvale mother and baby home in Newry when she became pregnant as a 17 year-old, giving birth in 1980.
She was prevented from seeing or holding her baby before he was adopted against her will.
"My baby was taken from me as soon as he was born," she said.
"I never even got to hold him, or even to look at his face. He was adopted against my knowledge or agreement.
"The nuns and the government did that to me and... to so many other women and girls and their babies... for decade after decade."