The South Korean government introduced the quota system in 1996 after news media and politicians began calling overseas adoptions a disgrace to then affluent South Korea. From a high of 8,000 a year during the 1980s, only 2,057 Korean children were adopted abroad in 1997. The economic crisis of 1997/8 greatly increased the number of broken homes and abandoned children. International adoption agencies are now working to reverse the official policy and relieve the overflowing children's homes.