POLICE raids have revealed an alleged network baby "farms" or "factories" in
Nigeria, forcing a new look at the scope of people trafficking in the
country.
At a hospital in Enugu, a large city in Nigeria's southeast, 20 teenage
girls were rescued in May in a police swoop on what was believed to be one
of the largest infant trafficking rings in the west African country.
The two-storey building on a dusty street in Enugu's teeming Uwani district now stands deserted, shutters down.
Neighbours had long found something bizarre about the establishment, where there was virtually no activity during the day, they said.
The doctor in charge, who is now on trial, reportedly lured teenagers with unwanted pregnancies by offering to help with abortion.
They would be locked up there until they gave birth, whereupon they would be forced to give up their babies for a token fee of around 20,000 naira ($170).
The babies would then be sold to buyers for anything between 300,000 and 450,000 naira ($2500-$3800) each, according to a state agency fighting human trafficking in Nigeria, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
The two-storey building on a dusty street in Enugu's teeming Uwani district now stands deserted, shutters down.
Neighbours had long found something bizarre about the establishment, where there was virtually no activity during the day, they said.
The doctor in charge, who is now on trial, reportedly lured teenagers with unwanted pregnancies by offering to help with abortion.
They would be locked up there until they gave birth, whereupon they would be forced to give up their babies for a token fee of around 20,000 naira ($170).
The babies would then be sold to buyers for anything between 300,000 and 450,000 naira ($2500-$3800) each, according to a state agency fighting human trafficking in Nigeria, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).