{{Short description|Sale of human children}} {{about|the systematic sale of human children|the practice of accepting custody of an infant or child in exchange for payment|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 of children|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== {{Seealso|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=== 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.{{cn|date=June 2025}} 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.<ref name="BangkokTheHuffingtonPost">{{Cite news |date=2011-02-24 |title='Inhumane' Thai Baby Breeding Farm Busted |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vietnamese-women-freed-fr_n_827595 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526060828/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vietnamese-women-freed-fr_n_827595 |archive-date=2024-05-26 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=[[HuffPost]] |language=en}}</ref> Illegal street clinics such as this exist in [[Kenya]].<ref name=bbcnews1/> A company called Baby101 had a baby factory in Thailand busted by police in 2011.<ref name=BangkokTheHuffingtonPost/> Baby factories operating through social media were documented in Malaysia in 2016.<ref name=Malaysia/> Most of the discovered baby factories have been found in Southern Nigeria, with high incidence in [[Ondo State|Ondo]], [[Ogun State|Ogun]], [[Imo State|Imo]], [[Akwa Ibom]] [[Abia State|Abia]] and [[Anambra]].<ref name="makinde" />
Baby factories have sometimes tricked or abducted women to be raped in order to sell their babies.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2018-04-26 |title=Nigeria 'baby factory' raided in Lagos |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43905606 |access-date=2023-12-05 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2012-09-25 |title=Nigerian's battle to keep her baby |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-19718084 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250419110234/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-19718084 |archive-date=2025-04-19 |access-date=2023-12-05 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 2008, a network of baby factories claiming to be [[orphanage]]s was revealed in [[Enugu (city)|Enugu]], [[Enugu State]] ([[Nigeria]]), by police raids.<ref name="NigeriaAFP">{{Cite news |date=2011-06-08 |title=Nigerian 'baby factory' raided, 32 teenage girls freed |url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5joyO03Khbbuw9SmkX-ce_PdamESQ?docId=CNG.3fe18ab5af9d3cb2bd07a5efa1d18035.651 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608181437/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5joyO03Khbbuw9SmkX-ce_PdamESQ?docId=CNG.3fe18ab5af9d3cb2bd07a5efa1d18035.651 |archive-date=2011-06-08 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=[[Agence France-Presse|AFP]]}}</ref><ref name="NigeriaFoxNews">{{Cite news |date=2008-11-14 |title=Police Raids Reveal Alleged Network of 'Baby Farms' |url=http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24650838-23109,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205074043/http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24650838-23109,00.html |archive-date=2008-12-05 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=[[Agence France-Presse|AFP]]}}</ref><ref name="NigeriaCBSNews">{{Cite news |last=Reals |first=Tucker |date=2011-06-02 |title=32 teens freed in Nigeria "baby factory" raid |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/32-teens-freed-in-nigeria-baby-factory-raid/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220718195018/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/32-teens-freed-in-nigeria-baby-factory-raid/ |archive-date=2022-07-18 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=[[CBS News]] |language=en-US}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Nigeria1">{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=David |date=2 June 2011 |title=Nigerian 'baby farm' raided – 32 pregnant girls rescued |url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/jun/02/nigeria-baby-farm-raided-human-trafficking |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241218145635/https://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/jun/02/nigeria-baby-farm-raided-human-trafficking |archive-date=2024-12-18 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref name="NigeriaBBC">{{Cite news |date=2011-06-01 |title=Nigeria 'baby farm' girls rescued by Abia state police |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13622679 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010173756/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13622679 |archive-date=2024-10-10 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="NigeriaDailyNews">{{Cite news |last=Caulfield |first=Philip |date=June 2, 2011 |title=Police in Nigeria free 32 pregnant teens from 'baby factory;' newborns sold into labor, sex markets |url=http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-06-02/news/29631752_1_pregnant-teens-human-trafficking-teen-girls |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130208154403/http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-06-02/news/29631752_1_pregnant-teens-human-trafficking-teen-girls |archive-date=2013-02-08 |work=[[New York Daily News]]}}</ref> In October 2011, seventeen pregnant women (thirty according to some sources<ref name="Nigeria247ureports">{{Cite news |date=2011-10-15 |title=Police Arrest 30 Pregnant Teenagers, Proprietor At Anambra Motherless Home |url=http://247ureports.com/2011/10/police-arrest-30-pregnant-teenagers-proprietor-at-anambra-motherless-home/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241130063921/http://247ureports.com/2011/10/police-arrest-30-pregnant-teenagers-proprietor-at-anambra-motherless-home/ |archive-date=2024-11-30 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=247ureports |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="NigeriaTheGuardianN">{{Cite news |last=Collins |first=Chuks |date=2011-10-16 |title=Police arrest 30 pregnant teenagers, others at motherless babies home |url=http://odili.net/news/source/2011/oct/16/7.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130916152258/http://odili.net/news/source/2011/oct/16/7.html |archive-date=2013-09-16 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=[[The Guardian (Nigeria)|The Guardian]]}}</ref>) were found in [[Ihiala]], [[Anambra State|Anambra]], in a hospital of the ''Iheanyi Ezuma Foundation''.<ref name="NigeriaNews24">{{Cite news |date=2011-10-16 |title=Nigerian baby factory raided |url=https://www.news24.com/News24/Nigerian-baby-factory-raided-20111015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527065133/http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Nigerian-baby-factory-raided-20111015 |archive-date=2016-05-27 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=[[News24 (website)|News24]] |language=en-US}}</ref> Five more baby factories were discovered in 2013, and eight more were discovered in 2015.<ref name="makinde" />
===Kidnapping=== 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.<ref name="bbcnews1">{{Cite news |last=Murimi |first=Peter |last2=Gunter |first2=Joel |last3=Watson |first3=Tom |date=2020-11-15 |title=The baby stealers |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54892564 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250409143757/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54892564 |archive-date=2025-04-09 |access-date=2024-04-08 |work=[[BBC News]] |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 1990s, it was rumored that child snatchers commonly roamed the country in Guatemala, which has lax laws regulating adoption.<ref name="GuatemalaTheGuardian">{{Cite news |last=Tuckman |first=Jo |date=2007-03-14 |title=£700 for a child? Guatemalan 'baby factory' deals in misery and hope |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/14/jotuckman.international |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240503225922/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/14/jotuckman.international |archive-date=2024-05-03 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=The Guardian |pages=25 |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McVeigh |first=Karen |date=2017-09-20 |title='There were a lot of baby farms': Sri Lanka to act over adoption racket claims |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/sep/20/baby-farms-sri-lanka-admits-adoption-racket-claims |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250101123132/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/sep/20/baby-farms-sri-lanka-admits-adoption-racket-claims |archive-date=2025-01-01 |access-date=2024-05-14 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdkHA_-xryk |title='One Child Nation' Exposes the Tragic Consequences of Chinese Population Control |date=2019-08-16 |last=[[Reason TV]] |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211029/RdkHA_-xryk |archive-date=2021-10-29}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
===Matching unwanted children=== {{seealso|Child selling}} Women who have a child or are [[unwanted pregnancy|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. Cited factors driving this from the biological mothers' side are financial hardship,<ref name=bbc0725/> the lack of contraception access and stigmatization of teenage pregnancies.<ref name="makinde">{{Cite journal |last=Makinde |first=Olusesan Ayodeji |last2=Olaleye |first2=Olalekan |last3=Makinde |first3=Olufunmbi Olukemi |last4=Huntley |first4=Svetlana S. |last5=Brown |first5=Brandon |date=2015-07-24 |title=Baby Factories in Nigeria: Starting the Discussion Toward a National Prevention Policy |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1524838015591588 |journal=Trauma, Violence, & Abuse |language=en |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=98–105 |doi=10.1177/1524838015591588 |issn=1524-8380 |pmid=26209095|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Illegal immigration|Immigrant]] [[sex worker]]s in [[Malaysia]] who get pregnant have entered into such exchanges as it is illegal for them to bear children.<ref name=Malaysia/> Sometimes those approaching them pose as maternity clinics, orphanages or social shelters.<ref name=bbc0725/> Often those approaching them are actual healthcare professionals. Police broke such a scheme in hospitals from [[Gwailor]], India, and Egypt in 2016 and 2012, respectively.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2008-02-14 |title=India: Cops bust 'baby farm' where you can buy an infant for $1,400 |url=https://dunyanews.tv/en/Crime/333230-India-Cops-bust-baby-farm-where-you-can-buy-an- |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250414105357/https://dunyanews.tv/en/Crime/333230-India-Cops-bust-baby-farm-where-you-can-buy-an- |archive-date=2025-04-14 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=[[Dunya News]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Egypt">{{Cite web |title=Egypt police bust baby trafficking ring |url=http://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/egypt-police-bust-baby-trafficking-ring/news-story/256ad561cc9f520561457448a41f6554 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241130094237/https://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/egypt-police-bust-baby-trafficking-ring/news-story/256ad561cc9f520561457448a41f6554 |archive-date=2024-11-30 |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=[[Australian Associated Press|AAP]] |language=en-GB}}</ref> Indonesian police uncovered a baby trafficking ring in 2025.<ref name=bbc0725>{{Cite news |date=2025-07-17 |title='Reserved in the womb' and sold for £500: Police bust baby trafficking ring|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq536dew1l4o |url-status=live |work=[[BBC News]] |language=en}}</ref>
==Markets== ===Adoption=== Child harvesting is particularly associated with and prevalent in some [[international adoption]] markets.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Geoghegan |first=Andrew |date=2009-09-15 |title=Fly Away Children |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-15/ethiopia---fly-away-children/1430136 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815130607/https://www.abc.net.au/foreign/ethiopia---fly-away-children/1430136 |archive-date=2022-08-15 |access-date=27 November 2010 |work=[[ABC Online]] |language=en-AU}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=International Baby Harvesting and Adoption-Abduction |url=http://www.adoption-articles.com/harvesting_babies.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120724145751/http://www.adoption-articles.com/harvesting_babies.htm |archive-date=2012-07-24 |access-date=2009-11-02 |website=adoption-articles.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Selected Works of David M. Smolin |url=http://works.bepress.com/david_smolin/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250102074235/https://works.bepress.com/david_smolin/ |archive-date=2025-01-02 |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=[[Bepress]]}}</ref> Factors driving this on the adopted parents' side 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,<ref name=Egypt/> or administrative difficulty.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Makinde |first=Olusesan Ayodeji |last2=Olaleye |first2=Olalekan |last3=Makinde |first3=Olufunmbi Olukemi |last4=Huntley |first4=Svetlana S. |last5=Brown |first5=Brandon |date=July 24, 2015 |title=Child harvesting |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1524838015591588 |journal=Trauma, Violence, & Abuse |language=en |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=98–105 |doi=10.1177/1524838015591588 |issn=1524-8380 |pmid=26209095 |s2cid=9985947|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
===Forced labor=== {{Seealso|Prostitution of children}} Child harvesting may also be involved in situations in which children are trafficked to provide [[slave labor]].<ref name="NigeriaDailyNews" /><ref name="NigeriaAFP" /> This could include in [[begging]] syndicates,<ref name="Malaysia">{{Cite episode |title=Malaysia: Babies for Sale |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2016/11/malaysia-babies-sale-161124133921861.html |series=101 East |series-link=101 East |network=[[Al Jazeera Media Network]] |date=24 November 2016 |access-date=29 November 2016}}</ref> [[plantation]]s, [[mining|mines]], [[factories]], as [[domestic worker]]s, or as [[Prostitution of children|sex workers]].<ref name="NigeriaDailyNews" /><ref name="NigeriaAFP" />
===Ritual sacrifices=== There have been allegations that some child harvesting programs provide infants to be [[torture]]d or [[sacrifice]]d in [[black magic]] or [[witchcraft]] rituals; this seems to be a concern in Nigeria.<ref name="NigeriaBBC" /><ref name="NigeriaNews24" /><ref name="Nigeria1" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-06-20 |title=Nigeria frees 16 in 'baby factory' raid |url=https://www.news24.com/News24/Nigeria-frees-16-in-baby-factory-raid-20130620 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020162522/https://www.news24.com/News24/Nigeria-frees-16-in-baby-factory-raid-20130620 |archive-date=2022-10-20 |access-date=2025-04-27 |work=[[News24 (website)|News24]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
==See also== * [[Child labour]] * [[Child laundering]] * [[Child-selling]] * [[Child trafficking]] * [[Commercial sexual exploitation of children]] * [[Human trafficking in Nigeria]] * [[Trafficking of children]] * [[Lebensborn]] * [[List of international adoption scandals]] * [[Surrogacy]] * [[Assisted reproductive technology]] * [[Adoption]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * ''[https://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/09/baby-factories-how-pregnancies-deliveries-are-framed/ Baby factories: How pregnancies, deliveries are framed]'' at [[Vanguard (Nigeria)|Vanguard]] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw-aaFPLOdw Video: ''The Nigerian Connection II''] (18:15–23:10) of [[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] * {{cite journal |doi=10.1177/1524838015591588 |title=Baby Factories in Nigeria |date=2017 |last1=Makinde |first1=Olusesan Ayodeji |last2=Olaleye |first2=Olalekan |last3=Makinde |first3=Olufunmbi Olukemi |last4=Huntley |first4=Svetlana S. |last5=Brown |first5=Brandon |journal=Trauma, Violence, & Abuse |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=98–105 |pmid=26209095 }} * {{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.rbmo.2015.10.001 |title=Baby factories taint surrogacy in Nigeria |date=2016 |last1=Makinde |first1=Olusesan Ayodeji |last2=Makinde |first2=Olufunmbi Olukemi |last3=Olaleye |first3=Olalekan |last4=Brown |first4=Brandon |last5=Odimegwu |first5=Clifford O. |journal=Reproductive Biomedicine Online |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=6–8 |pmid=26602942 }} * {{cite journal |doi=10.1002/car.2420 |title=Infant Trafficking and Baby Factories: A New Tale of Child Abuse in Nigeria |date=2016 |last1=Makinde |first1=Olusesan Ayodeji |journal=Child Abuse Review |volume=25 |issue=6 |pages=433–443 }}
[[Category:Child abuse]] [[Category:Children's rights]] [[Category:Human trafficking]] [[Category:Human reproduction]] [[Category:Natalism]]