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Child harvesting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the systematic sale of human children. For the practice of accepting custody of an infant or child in exchange for payment, see baby farming.

Child harvesting or baby harvesting refers to the systematic sale of human children, typically for adoption by families in the developed world, but sometimes for other purposes, including trafficking. The term covers a wide variety of situations and degrees of economic, social, and physical coercion. Child harvesting programs or the locations at which they take place are sometimes referred to as baby factories or baby farms.

Methods

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See also: Child laundering

After a child is obtained through differing methods mentioned below, the identity of the child or the parent or both are altered in a process known as child laundering.

Baby factories

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Women can become pregnant with the intent of selling their babies, willingly or forcibly. The facilities where the babies are delivered and sold are known as "baby factories" or "baby breeding farms". They might be disguised as maternity homes, orphanages, clinics and small scale factories.[1] The practice is often driven by poverty. In some cases there is overlap with commercial surrogacy, where the male partner buying the baby also provides the sperm.[2] Illegal street clinics such as this exist in Kenya.[3] A company called Baby101 had a baby factory in Thailand busted by police in 2011.[2] Baby factories operating through social media were documented in Malaysia in 2016.[4] Most of the discovered baby factories are found in Southern Nigeria, with high incidence in Ondo, Ogun, Imo, Akwa Ibom Abia and Anambra.[5]

Baby factories have sometimes tricked or abducted women to be raped in order to sell their babies.[6][7] In 2008, a network of baby factories claiming to be orphanages, was revealed in Enugu, Enugu State (Nigeria), by police raids.[8][9][10] In June 2011, in Aba, Nigeria, 32 pregnant girls were freed from a baby farm that claimed to help pregnant teenagers but would then force them to give their babies.[11][12][13] In October 2011, seventeen pregnant women (thirty according to some sources[14][15]) were found in Ihiala, Anambra, in a hospital of the Iheanyi Ezuma Foundation.[16] Five more baby factories were discovered in 2013, and eight more were discovered in 2015.[5]

Kidnapping

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Organized rings in Nairobi are known to abduct the children of homeless mothers. This is usually while the families are sleeping on the street but also through gaining the trust of the mother.[3] In 1990s, it was rumored that child snatchers commonly roamed the country in Guatemala, which has lax laws regulating adoption.[17] In the 1980s, staff in some hospitals in Sri Lanka were involved in rackets of kidnapping newborns for international adoptions. They informed the biological mothers that the newborns had died and paid other women to act as the real mothers.[18] The state can also be involved in such schemes. During the One Child Policy in China, when women were only allowed to have one child, local governments would often allow the woman to give birth and then they would take the baby away. Child traffickers, often paid by the government, would sell the children to orphanages that would arrange international adoptions worth tens of thousands of dollars, turning a profit for the government.[19]

Matching unwanted children

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See also: Child selling

Women who have a child or are pregnant with a child which they feel they are unable or unwilling to care for have been approached to instead deliver the baby to be sold to those looking for a child. The stigmatization of teenage pregnancy and lack of abortion access[5] have been cited as driving factors. Immigrant sex workers in Malaysia who get pregnant have entered into such exchanges as it is illegal for them to bear children.[4] Those approaching them are often healthcare professionals. Police broke such a scheme in a hospital in Gwailor in India in 2016.[20] Police broke such a scheme in a hospital in Egypt in 2012.[21]

Markets

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Adoption

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Child harvesting is particularly associated with and prevalent in some international adoption markets.[22][23][24] Cited factors driving this are a stigmatization of childless couples, the costs of assisted reproductive technology such as in vitro fertilization, and difficulties in adoption such as cultural acceptance, legality, [21] or administrative difficulty.[25]

Forced labor

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See also: Prostitution of children

Child harvesting may also be involved in situations in which children are trafficked to provide slave labor.[13][8] This could include in begging syndicates,[4] plantations, mines, factories, as domestic workers, or as sex workers.[13][8]

Ritual sacrifices

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There have been relatively few allegations that some child harvesting programs provide infants to be tortured or sacrificed in black magic or witchcraft rituals; this seems to be a concern in Nigeria.[12][16][11][26]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Eseadi, Chiedu; Achagh, Wilfred; Ikechukwu-Ilomuanya, Amaka B.; Ogbuabor, Shulamite E. (July 2015). "Prevalence of baby factory in Nigeria: An emergent form of child abuse, trafficking and molestation of women". International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research Methods. 2 (1): 1–12. eISSN 2398-7138. ISSN 2398-712X.
  2. ^ a b "'Inhumane' Thai Baby Breeding Farm Busted". HuffPost. 2011-02-24. Archived from the original on 2024-05-26. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  3. ^ a b Murimi, Peter; Gunter, Joel; Watson, Tom (2020-11-15). "The baby stealers". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2025-04-09. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
  4. ^ a b c "Malaysia: Babies for Sale". 101 East. 24 November 2016. Al Jazeera Media Network. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  5. ^ a b c Makinde, Olusesan Ayodeji; Olaleye, Olalekan; Makinde, Olufunmbi Olukemi; Huntley, Svetlana S.; Brown, Brandon (2015-07-24). "Baby Factories in Nigeria: Starting the Discussion Toward a National Prevention Policy". Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. 18 (1): 98–105. doi:10.1177/1524838015591588. ISSN 1524-8380. PMID 26209095.
  6. ^ "Nigeria 'baby factory' raided in Lagos". 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  7. ^ "Nigerian's battle to keep her baby". BBC News. 2012-09-25. Archived from the original on 2025-04-19. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  8. ^ a b c "Nigerian 'baby factory' raided, 32 teenage girls freed". AFP. 2011-06-08. Archived from the original on 2011-06-08. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  9. ^ "Police Raids Reveal Alleged Network of 'Baby Farms'". AFP. 2008-11-14. Archived from the original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  10. ^ Reals, Tucker (2011-06-02). "32 teens freed in Nigeria "baby factory" raid". CBS News. Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  11. ^ a b Smith, David (2 June 2011). "Nigerian 'baby farm' raided – 32 pregnant girls rescued". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2024-12-18. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  12. ^ a b "Nigeria 'baby farm' girls rescued by Abia state police". BBC News. 2011-06-01. Archived from the original on 2024-10-10. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  13. ^ a b c Caulfield, Philip (June 2, 2011). "Police in Nigeria free 32 pregnant teens from 'baby factory;' newborns sold into labor, sex markets". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on 2013-02-08.
  14. ^ "Police Arrest 30 Pregnant Teenagers, Proprietor At Anambra Motherless Home". 247ureports. 2011-10-15. Archived from the original on 2024-11-30. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  15. ^ Collins, Chuks (2011-10-16). "Police arrest 30 pregnant teenagers, others at motherless babies home". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2013-09-16. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  16. ^ a b "Nigerian baby factory raided". News24. 2011-10-16. Archived from the original on 2016-05-27. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  17. ^ Tuckman, Jo (2007-03-14). "£700 for a child? Guatemalan 'baby factory' deals in misery and hope". The Guardian. p. 25. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2024-05-03. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  18. ^ McVeigh, Karen (2017-09-20). "'There were a lot of baby farms': Sri Lanka to act over adoption racket claims". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2025-01-01. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  19. ^ Reason TV (2019-08-16). 'One Child Nation' Exposes the Tragic Consequences of Chinese Population Control. Archived from the original on 2021-10-29.
  20. ^ "India: Cops bust 'baby farm' where you can buy an infant for $1,400". Dunya News. 2008-02-14. Archived from the original on 2025-04-14. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  21. ^ a b "Egypt police bust baby trafficking ring". AAP. Archived from the original on 2024-11-30. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  22. ^ Geoghegan, Andrew (2009-09-15). "Fly Away Children". ABC Online. Archived from the original on 2022-08-15. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
  23. ^ "International Baby Harvesting and Adoption-Abduction". adoption-articles.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-24. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  24. ^ "Selected Works of David M. Smolin". Bepress. Archived from the original on 2025-01-02. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  25. ^ Makinde, Olusesan Ayodeji; Olaleye, Olalekan; Makinde, Olufunmbi Olukemi; Huntley, Svetlana S.; Brown, Brandon (July 24, 2015). "Child harvesting". Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. 18 (1): 98–105. doi:10.1177/1524838015591588. ISSN 1524-8380. PMID 26209095. S2CID 9985947.
  26. ^ "Nigeria frees 16 in 'baby factory' raid". News24. 2013-06-20. Archived from the original on 2022-10-20. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
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