Thirty-two suspects have been arrested in connection with the case, which is centred around the Yunnan province in China’s southwest and has made national headlines.
Police in Yunnan began an investigation into the suspected trafficking in February, an officer at the Kaiyuan Railway Police Station told AFP, adding that the children in this case are believed to have been sold to traffickers by parents who had exceeded China’s one-child limit.
“So far, we haven’t found that any of the children have been stolen said the officer, who declined to give his name.The babies are now housed in our local children’s welfare centre, and these past few days people have been calling to find out more about their situation, with some hoping to adopt them,” he said.
He added that the children are in good health, aside from one who is receiving treatment for eye problems, and that some of the infants had been trafficked several times.China has a flourishing underground child trafficking industry, for which tens of thousands of children are believed to be stolen each year, with demand fuelled by a one-child limit combined with a traditional preference for sons.
Some people believed these children were sold out by there parents.“These children were sold by their own biological parents,” wrote one user of Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter. “To send them back to those people, it’s just too complicated.”
Photo credit: Dreamstimes/ illustration purpose
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