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A child in a park in Beijing Ng Han Guan/AP/Press Association Images
Trafficking
Scores of kidnapped children freed from Chinese traffickers
Babies were being auctioned to the highest bidder for as much as €6,000, according to reports.
SCORES OF CHILDREN have been freed from kidnappings after police broke up major trafficking gangs in China.
The nationwide operation saw 802 suspected traffickers arrested, according to China’s Ministry of Public Security.
Some 181 abducted children were said to have been rescued in a series of raids. They included arrests of several suspected traffickers carrying infants on long-distance buses, and investigations at rural clinics and schools.
The trade in trafficked children included one clinic in Hebei province at which pregnant women sold their unborn children for up to 50,000 yuan (€6,300), Bloomberg reports.
One suspect arrested was alleged to be from a gang that trafficked more than 100 children. Abducted children can be sold for adoption, or for use as labourers or house servants, the BBC reports.
Some analysts have suggested that China’s strict one-child policy is driving the market for trafficked children.
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