Baby traffic in Italy

According to official sources, in Italy 18,600 couples have asked (legally) to adopt a foreign baby between 2001 and 2003. But only 7,000 of these adoptions have succeeded.

Wherever and whenever there is a shortage of a product the market naturally find other ways to supply the demand. This sounds natural when talking of tomatoes, but it sounds horrible when the human babies are the products.

The recent news that the Italian police have arrested 3 Italians and 3 Bulgarians involved in babies' trafficking is not surprising then. This is only the tip of a huge global international child trafficking market from Eastern Europe countries - and of a multi-billionaire business - fuelled by rigid Italian laws that make adopting a baby in Italy very difficult.

In fact, Italy has had in the last few years the lowest bird rate in the developed world, and cannot fulfill the domestic demand of adoptions. On the other hand, Bulgaria families have lots of kids and most of them have nothing to feed their children. Here the great idea of the Italian-Bulgarian organised crime.

The Bulgarian mothers are driven to Italy, with tourist visas, in the last stages of pregnancy. They waited at Gypsy camps until going into labour, and then gave birth in a clean Italian hospital. But after the birth, as agreed with the traffickers, the mothers refuse to recognise their children, as is permitted under Italian law for women who do not want to keep their babies.

The Italian fake babies' fathers, claimed the children and registered them with local authorities as theirs.

The mother will then get a present from the new parents of her baby and the assurance that they will look after the child for ever.

According international aid bodies this trade involves more than 1 million children for a world business of more than 5 billion euros (or 3.3 billion pounds) - a year. And more than 10,000 Bulgarian mothers might have been involved in this business.

Prices for the babies varies from euro5,000 (£3,300) for a girl, and can reach 17,000 euros for a white blond boy with blue eyes.

Nothing surprising. In the past the rich Italian families form the north used to buy babies from poor numerous families form the south of Italy who used to have dozens of children to feed and no bread to feed them. But at those times girls had more value than boys - because they used to look after their old parents. Nowadays girls are equal, so boys are more wanted since they will have carried the name of the families.

The Italian Catholic church has always had its part in this issue. Plus the complicated Italian bureaucracy, which makes adopting a baby more difficult than winning the lottery have paved the road to an illegal baby traffic to fulfil the domestic and international demand of babies for adoptions, but unfortunately also for human spare parts.

Felix Petrelli c2004