Babies are being sold for up to $4,500 in Kazakhstan, but the government is cracking down on traffickers with a new law adopted earlier this month.
To fight against trafficking newborns, the new legislation facilitates the criminal prosecution for such crimes as kidnapping, illegal deprivation of liberty, human trafficking, involvement in prostitution and more.
Approved ahead of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, marked annually on 30 July, the law responds to a grim reality.
Last year, 19 cases of trade in newborns were registered in the country, for which more than 15 people were brought to justice, according to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Internal Affairs.
So far in 2024, six cases of trade in newborns have been registered, with the ministry reporting prices for each child range from $200 to $4,500.
True extent of the problem
But, that is just the surface, said Gulnaz Kelekeyeva, head of the project Kazakhstan's Actions in Combating Child Trafficking project at Winrock International, a United States-based non-governmental organization (NGO). Ms. Kelekeyeva said she believes that official statistics do not reflect the real state of affairs.
"Unfortunately, in Kazakhstan, there has been virtually no nationwide research on socially vulnerable children and the vulnerability of children to trafficking and exploitation," she told UN News. "There are also no accurate statistics to assess the true scale of the problem."
The only study on vulnerable Kazakhstani children who have been victims of human trafficking in and outside the country, as well as sexual exploitation, was conducted in 2012 by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Kazakhstan.
Trafficking moves online
Since then, human and child trafficking has moved online, Ms. Kelekeyeva warned.
"Much has changed over the past 12 years, in particular, human and child trafficking is now increasingly taking place in cyberspace," she said. "It is necessary to conduct a new analysis of the current situation in the country regarding the protection of children from trafficking and exploitation."
Human and child trafficking is now increasingly taking place in cyberspace
Today, there is only isolated information about cases of child trafficking that gets into the media from crime reports, she emphasised.
Last fall, media reports spotlighted a case about the sale of an abandoned baby by obstetricians at a maternity hospital in Kazakhstan. The doctors were found guilty of selling a newborn for $3,000 and sentenced to eight years of imprisonment.
Another case involved a 23-year-old mother tried to sell her two children. The eldest was about a year old, and the second was less than a month old. The children are now under state protection.
Protecting children
Unfortunately, those tasked with caring for children are often unaware of the role they play in preventing and combatting child trafficking, Ms. Kelekeyeva said. That includes health and education authorities, maternity hospitals and schools, children's homes, guardianship and trusteeship institutions, visiting nurses and paediatricians at clinics, emergency wards and private medical centres in Kazakhstan.
"Often, they mistakenly believe that this issue falls within the competence of purely law enforcement agencies," she said. "Although it is precisely in this issue that there should be interaction between all interested services."
Child trafficking is not only the adoption of children, but also sexual exploitation, forced labour and the sale of organs, she said.
Digital tools are helping
The new Kazakh law is toughening penalties for human trafficking requires healthcare workers to report abandoned newborns or face administrative liability, and digital technologies are helping to identify such cases.
Since last year, a pilot project has been tested in one of the maternity hospitals Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Each newborn was immediately given an individual identification number, which eliminates the possibility of criminal transactions.
This year, the pilot is being rolled out across the country.
Legal support
Scientific achievements at the time, such as the possibility of artificial insemination, are now causing many difficulties in developing a law aimed at preventing the trafficking of newborns, explained member of parliament Sergei Ponomarev, who took part in developing the new anti-trafficking legislation.
Today, cases have been encountered where women from Kazakhstan, especially from the southern regions of the country, are used as incubators to bear other people's children, he said.
"Regarding this matter, we are open to studying the experience of other countries," he said.
A Kazakh sold abroad returns home
When 21-year-old Eddy Jean (born Zhanibek) was born, he was adopted by a single Belgian woman who reportedly paid €12,000. In 2022, he came to Kazakhstan in search of his birth mother.
"I don't need anything; I just want to see my mother's face, hug her at least once and calm my heart," Eddy said at the time on a popular talk show that aired on national television. "I still worry, especially when I talk about my mother."
I just want to see my mother's face, hug her at least once and calm my heart
Renowned journalist Kymbat Doszhan told UN News that she was so moved by Eddy's story that she became his official representative in Kazakhstan in the search for his biological mother.
She said Eddy's biological mother had asked to leave the maternity hospital with a receipt in 2002, but never returned. In those years, when the nation's economy was recovering after the Soviet Union's collapse, she said many Kazakhstani children were adopted by foreigners and taken abroad.
The Kazakhstan Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that foreigners can now pay as much as $50,000 for a trafficked newborn. But, Ms. Doszhan said "it is still very difficult to find Eddy's biological mother."
She said archival documents from the orphanage have either disappeared or do not contain accurate information.
"Perhaps this was done intentionally," she continued. "There were two meetings with Eddy's alleged mothers, but the DNA results did not confirm the relationship. When we contacted his adoptive mother from Belgium, it turned out that she had paid the orphanage staff €12,000."
Today in Kazakhstan, issues of child adoption are regulated by law. In the event of the detection of a crime, in particular an act of purchase and sale or other transactions in relation to a minor, the fact is registered under article 135, on trafficking minors, of the Criminal Code.
Still, the search for Eddy's birth mother continues, Ms. Doszhan said.
"We were faced with the fact that we had no one to even file claims against," she said. "Those who sold children in those years have long since left Kazakhstan."
