Roma are far from being the only ones accused in recent times to be associated in the media with stealing children...
bbm.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=103935
"Within a couple of hours of making enquiries, our investigators had been taken to a tiny village in a remote area of Bulgaria. Here, working adults earn less than one euro a day (around 90p), so parents are trading the only thing they have of any value - their children.
Buyers range from childless couples desperate for a baby to love, to paedophile rings. Children can be sold from anything upwards of £1,200. For families too poor to feed or clothe themselves, finding a buyer willing to fork out thousands for a child that they can't afford to raise, is like winning the lottery. Sadly, this often means they don't question their child's prospective new 'family' too closely.
Recently, baby trading hit the headlines when the News of the World revealed the father and uncle of Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali tried to sell her to reporters. Her family valued her at £200,000 - because she wasn't just a child - but an 'Oscar child'"
Snip>>
""There are still millions of children in both rich and poor countries who are living in horrific conditions of humiliation and abuse," says Bill Bell, Save The Children's head of protection. "Across the world there are currently 1.8 million children trapped in the sex trade, over a million children risking their lives working in mines, and millions more, some as young as six, forced to work up to 15-hour days as domestic workers. These children are treated as commodities, and can be lent or sold to other owners without warning."
For the criminal gangs it's easy money and, as our investigation shows, it can take as little as two hours to find a baby for sale.
"
Despite police activity, as long as you have the money, you can buy a baby or young child in Bulgaria," says one Bulgarian informant. "No one asks whether you're a child abuser. It's like buying something from a market stall."
Bulgaria is not the only country where child trafficking is rife. Romania, Guatemala and India also have a thriving trade. Some of these children may end up as part of a loving family - so desperate for a baby, that they resorted to this horrific underworld - but most will be used and abused, bought and sold time and time again until ill-health or death gets to them.
And it seems although the authorities know this is a growing problem, there is very little they can do to stop it.
Adrian Lovett, director of campaigns at Save The Children says:
"Children in Eastern Europe and across the world are bought and sold as if they are commodities to be used as slave labour or for sexual gratification. Fabulous' investigation shows how easy it is to traffic children - and that it can be cheaper to buy a child than a second-hand car. How can that be right? Those who trade in children must be made accountable".
- See more at:
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=103935#sthash.4Dh8uCe0.dpuf
I'm not buying the rest of it (BBM) either.
