The Baby Market

Baby offered on eBay now in state custody

Anyone who trolls eBay with regularity has probably gotten used to seeing the odd object up for sale now and again. But the Saturday story of a German pair offering their 8-month-old for purchase on the site may end up topping more than a few creepiest-ever-on-eBay lists.

More >> http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9951800-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Haiti "restavek" tradition called child slavery

Living in a tent after an earthquake left a million Haitians in the streets, Melila Thelusma says she cannot support her two daughters and is ready to give them away to foreigners if she can find a good home for them.

More >> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61H3F920100218

UNICEF: child protection crisis in Haiti

The UN children's agency says it is facing its biggest child protection crisis in the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January.

UNICEF's deputy executive director says the quake added to the country's already huge burden of unaccompanied children. Many thousands of Haitian children were orphaned or separated from their parents by the earthquake.

Hilde Frafjord Johnson says "the risks of child trafficking, children being sold into slavery-like conditions or illegally adopted are significant". The deputy director's comments came as the UN child agency released its annual humanitarian action report.

According to the report, about 40 percent of children in Haiti were already living in absolute poverty and some 300,000 were living in orphanages before the earthquake struck last month.

More >> http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/unicef-child-protection-crisis-haiti
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'Idaho 10' member blames UNICEF for arrests; UNICEF disputes allegations

With the last of 10 Southern Baptist mission volunteers released from a Haitian jail May 17, one of her "Idaho 10" co-laborers is breaking his silence and blaming the whole ordeal on meddling by the United Nations Children Fund, more commonly known as UNICEF.

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/5162/53/

US couples face trial over baby buying in Egypt

Two US couples have been charged in Egypt with buying babies for illegal adoption in the first known case in this country involving foreigners, highlighting a practice which experts say can easily go undetected.

A third US couple is accused of obtaining a forged birth certificate for a child and trying to use it to obtain a US visa, according to legal documents and security sources.

Egyptian authorities have jailed two of the couples pending trial, including two US citizens and their Egyptian spouses, and one couple is believed to be in the United States with the baby they obtained in Egypt, security sources said.

More >> http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/1750483

'Internet baby' in foster care

Families of missing Delhi children see little hope

It's been a year since Kamla Devi last saw her son Manesh, whose disappearance at age seven put him among the more than 2,500 children who have vanished from the Indian capital in the past year.

In the migrant ghetto of Sangam Vihar where Manesh lived, more than 100 children have gone missing since January 2008.

While police say many have run away to escape poverty or unhappy homes, or have even "eloped" with equally young sweethearts, Kamla believes otherwise -- and many child welfare experts agree with her.

More >> http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ikCR8XJ610hopHYzFZuVUYkRpVyA

Illegal adoptions contribute to child trafficking

Exhibit seeks to connect foster kids with families

Despite its age, or perhaps because of it, the Freedom Tower continues to make visitors fall in love with its awe-inspiring, architectural beauty.

Child welfare officials are hoping that a photo exhibit of children in foster care will have a similar effect on potential adoptive parents.
The Children's Trust Miami Heart Gallery exhibit is on display at the historic landmark in downtown Miami. The official kickoff was on Friday, June 12.

But a day before the kickoff, several of the children featured in the giant photos were on hand to talk to the media about their desire for a permanent family.

More >> http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2916&Itemid=144

Adopting a child in Russia takes 40 minutes

Russia is the second most popular country for international adoption. But its adoption system is rife with problems.

Timur giggled as he held on to his playpen to hold himself up. He looked like the healthy babies common in TV ads. "The doctor said his muscles need exercise," his mother, Yulia Kolesnichenko (31) explained. "In the orphanage he did nothing but lie in bed all day for the first four months of his life. He barely moved."

Kolesnichenko is a happy adoptive mother. She has a nine-year-old daughter, but when she wanted a second child, she decided to adopt. Two years of preparation went into Timur's adoption. Kolesnichenko received special training, spoke with fellow prospective adoptive parents, read about all the potential pitfalls on the internet and, finally, filed for adoption. "The rules in Russia are not as strict as they are in the rest of the world," Kolesnichenko said. Experience has made her something of an expert on the subject. "You can have everything wrapped up in three months. In essence, all you need to do is prove that you can handle the adoption both physically and financially. That wasn't always pleasant though. My husband and I were subjected to 29 pointless medical tests and my apartment was inspected by the sanitation department."

Fraudulent adoption process lands woman in trouble

Judge: State can't protect unborn baby whose parents allegedly want to sell it

Claims adopted children were stolen

THE Queensland government will cooperate with Indian investigators into claims children adopted from India may have been stolen.

On the hunt for China's child snatchers

Over 2,000 trafficked children have been rescued since China's government began a crackdown on the trade in stolen children earlier this year.

But as the BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from Beijing, many thousands of children are being snatched off the streets to be sold every year and most are never recovered.

The footage from the CCTV security camera is soft and blurred, but a man can be seen walking down a street carrying a child away in the night.

He glances over his shoulder, wary. This is a child kidnapper in the act of committing his crime.

More >> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8383424.stm

Selling of babies 'widespread'