Sun, Nov 22 2009

Three Bulgarians arrested in Greece for selling newborn for 13 000 euro

Wed, Oct 07 2009 11:12 CET 1328 Views 6 Comments
Three Bulgarians arrested in Greece for selling newborn for 13 000 euro

Photo: Krassimir Yuskesseliev

Three Bulgarian nationals have been arrested by Greek police while attempting to sell a two-month-old baby, Bulgarian news agency BTA quoted Greek media as reporting on October 7 2009.

The three Bulgarians, one man and two women, of whom one is the baby's mother, tried to sell the baby for 13 000 euro to undercover police officers who presented themselves as buyers in the town of Katerini in northern Greece.

According to Greek police, the baby was born in August in a hospital on the island of Crete.

The arrest was the latest news of Bulgarians involved in human trafficking in Greece. On June 17, three Bulgarians, two of them lawyers, were apprehended and charged with child trafficking.

They were involved in the smuggling of 16 newborn babies, 13 of whom were ferried to Greek couples. The other three were sent to Bulgarian parents.

Reportedly, the lawyers managed to persuade pregnant women to sell their babies for between 3000 and 5000 leva before selling them on to Greek couples for as much as 40 000 euro per child, the SANS report said.

In June, the United States state department annual report on human trafficking cited Bulgaria as a "source, transit, and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for men, women, and children from Ukraine, Moldova and Romania trafficked to and through Bulgaria to Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Norway, the Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Turkey, and Macedonia for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor".

According to the data, children are trafficked within Bulgaria and to Greece and the United Kingdom for the purposes of forced begging and forced petty theft, indicating that 15 per cent of identified trafficking victims in Bulgaria are children.

Comments

Anonymous Valeri Wed, Oct 07 2009 23:44 CET
Inappropriate comment?

Let me rephrase this:

Roma people are not the client race of the majority of the country in which they happen to reside in.
Roma are European minority, free to pursue their traditional nomadic lifestyle throughout the EU, (and beyond) and their belonging to their larger Roma nation should be recognized.
At the time when the concept of a "Nation State" is being revised by the ideal of the EU, I find it very regressive that some in the Western parts of the EU would insist that a whole sub-culture should be kept a responsibility/subjects to the larger group of a particular local....


Anonymous Valeri Wed, Oct 07 2009 23:37 CET
Inappropriate comment?

"Are you seriously saying that romas studied themselves to lawyers? ;)"

Meaning? Romas can be lawyers. Nothing's stopping them.

Anonymous Valeri Wed, Oct 07 2009 23:35 CET
Inappropriate comment?

"As long as they are Bulgarian or Romanian citizens they are your issue, not somebody else's."

That sounds like passing the buck.
How racist is it to ascribe a race - a nationality, to another race's dependences?

Romas in Italiy, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland are Romas.
A little respect for the Roma people would be nice....

Anonymous Hmm Wed, Oct 07 2009 23:12 CET
Inappropriate comment?

"I think there should be a EU institution dealing exclusively with Romas - that is Gypsy business right there, not "Tree Bulgarians"...

Romas are European issue, not Bulgarian or Romanian or any other's..."

Are you seriously saying that romas studied themselves to lawyers? ;)
As long as they are Bulgarian or Romanian citizens they are your issue, not somebody else's.

Anonymous lauren Wed, Oct 07 2009 21:42 CET
Inappropriate comment?

that guy was stupid

Anonymous Valeri Wed, Oct 07 2009 21:16 CET
Inappropriate comment?

"According to the data, children are trafficked within Bulgaria and to Greece and the United Kingdom for the purposes of forced begging and forced petty theft, indicating that 15 per cent of identified trafficking victims in Bulgaria are children."

I think there should be a EU institution dealing exclusively with Romas - that is Gypsy business right there, not "Tree Bulgarians"...

Romas are European issue, not Bulgarian or Romanian or any other's....

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