Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ATHENS3240
2006-12-22 08:28:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Athens
Cable title:  

PRESS REPORTS LINK TRAFFICKING TO PRIVATE

Tags:  KCRM KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG HSTC GR BU RO 
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VZCZCXRO2199
PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHTH #3240/01 3560828
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 220828Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7722
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBM/AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST PRIORITY 0918
RUEHSQ/AMEMBASSY SKOPJE PRIORITY 1000
RUEHSF/AMEMBASSY SOFIA PRIORITY 1493
RUEHTI/AMEMBASSY TIRANA PRIORITY 1166
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 003240 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SE FOR MELINGER, G/TIP FOR DONNELLY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2016
TAGS: KCRM KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG HSTC GR BU RO
SUBJECT: PRESS REPORTS LINK TRAFFICKING TO PRIVATE
ADOPTIONS IN GREECE


Classified By: Political Counselor Robin Quinville
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

SUMMARY
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 003240

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SE FOR MELINGER, G/TIP FOR DONNELLY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2016
TAGS: KCRM KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG HSTC GR BU RO
SUBJECT: PRESS REPORTS LINK TRAFFICKING TO PRIVATE
ADOPTIONS IN GREECE


Classified By: Political Counselor Robin Quinville
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

SUMMARY
--------------


1. (U) This week, Athens police arrested a 41 year-old
British woman in connection with the kidnapping of an infant
child bed!&!)&! Q) ! 1Q year-old Romanian Roma #iQ,& T(%Q
T%e&!g%$ victim was also arre1T%$ !&4%R !k%Qd!)&).' to police
that she (!d "e%f !h%!Q%$ #QT !b the 14,000 euro that 4(eQQ
BRiQi1( Q-e!& offered to pay for the "!"I& T(e !a1e Qe!%ived
international pr%QQ !T4%b4)c* 2)! ! "ront-page report in theQ
De!e%beQ QQ I&4%Rbational Herald Tribune. Lc!!d (u-!b Q)#h4Q
advocates claim that Qh% i*!)$e&Q )Q Q)%Ply the tip of the
i!e"%Ra$ )b Qh!Q 4(%I d%scribe as mostly Roma")a* a"dQ
BQ,a!R)!b Rcma women being traffi#)e$ )&Q' ER%%c% 4! 1%,l
their offspring; ab i$,)!it TR!d% b!Qt%Qed by social stigma
!*d Q(% $!h regulationQ QQ2R%5J$)ba 0Q)2!Te adoptions in
Greece. MFA contacts on the trafficking issue have promised
to investigate. Embassy will also raise with other
officials, underscoring that oversight of private adoptions
is also a key component of effective anti-trafficking
measures. End summary.


2. (U) On December 19, a 41 year-old British woman was
arrested and charged with kidnapping an infant belonging to a
16 year-old Romanian Roma girl. According to press reports,
the woman told her 24 year-old Greek boyfriend on the island
of Kefalonia in September that she was pregnant and going to
England to give birth. However, authorities believe that
upon arriving in Athens, she met the pregnant Romanian girl
and offered her 14,000 euro to sell her child. After the
birth, the British subject snatched the child from her mother
and returned to Kefalonia. Upon being presented with the
six-month old infant, the boyfriend reportedly refused to
believe that he was the father, causing the British woman to

take the child to an area hospital for adoption. After
reporting the kidnapping to police in Athens, the 16 year-old
Romanian mother was also arrested for revealing her
intentions to sell the child for 14,000 euro.

COMPLEX SYSTEM DRIVES WOULD-BE
PARENTS TO PRIVATE ADOPTIONS
--------------


3. (U) Legal adoption in Greece is extremely difficult and
complex. The rules place a heavy burden on adoptive parents,
often requiring them to prove land ownership, financial
security, an absence of biological children, mental
well-being, etc. These and other factors regularly drag the
process out for six to eight years. As a result, many turn
to private adoptions, making their own arrangements with a
natural mother who is willing to sign away her parental
rights. The exchange of money for such a transaction is
technically illegal, but human rights advocates maintain that
it occurs. Their claim is supported by recent statistics.
In 2006, according to official statistics, less than 10
percent of the 603 court-registered adoptions were through
official state channels. Attorney Eleni Glegle, a noted
human rights advocate in Athens, told the Embassy on December
19 that &99.9 percent of all private adoptions involve the
selling of babies.8 She claimed that the current market
price for girls is 14,000 euro while boys sell for
approximately 20,000. Other sources put the prices between
18,000 and 30,000 euro.


4. (U) Human rights advocates tell us that some victims are
lured to Greece with job offers. Others are given loans in
Bulgaria or Romania when mediators see that they are pregnant
and later, when they are unable to repay the loan, are
pressured to sell their children in settlement of the debt.
Still others willingly agree to the sale after promises of
large sums in exchange -- but they are frequently sent home
on a bus with little or nothing from the mediators who split
the fees with obstetricians, midwives and lawyers.

NO CONTROLS ON PRIVATE ADOPTIONS
--------------


5. (U) Beyond the prohibition of transferring money, there
are few, if any, restrictions on private adoptions in Greece.
Child advocates claim that the absence of controls over the
adoption process makes Greece an ideal trafficking
destination for pregnant women whose children can fetch
handsome sums for the middlemen who arrange the sales.

ATHENS 00003240 002 OF 002


Police sources quoted in the press identify Roma women of
Bulgaria, Romania and other Balkan countries as the most
frequent victims.


6. (U) The Chief of the Athens Police Trafficking in Persons
Unit, Lieutenant Colonel Tonia Andreakou told the press that
her department traced nine sales of Bulgarian infants in the
first half of 2006 and arrested 33 suspected facilitators )
24 Bulgarians, 7 Greeks and 2 Albanians. Among the Greek
defendants were doctors and lawyers. Andreakou added that
the arrests represent merely &a fraction of the real number
of cases.8 Authorities are also growing concerned with
possible trafficking from Albania after the arrest last month
of five Albanians for the suspected sale of eight Roma babies.


7. (C) In a December 20 conversation with Poloff, Heraklis
Moskoff (please protect) of the MFA,s International
Development Cooperation Directorate (YDAS) and MFA TIP
representative admitted that he was unsure of what action
that MFA could take to address flaws with the legal process
of adoptions in Greece, but advised that he would bring the
issue to Secretary General of the MFA, Mr. Charlambos
Rokanas, the GoG,s TIP Coordinator, as well as to Deputy
Foreign Minister Evripidis Stylianidis to see what, if any,
steps were possible to address the sale of Bulgarian and
Romanian Roma children in Greece. He also stated that he
would speak with at least one NGO that deals with child
welfare matters to request that they may make an evaluation
of the issue and offer suggestions for possible future
action.

COMMENT
--------------


8. (SBU) Many Greeks still attach an enormous social stigma
to being adopted. Many parents never reveal to their
children that they were adopted and will go to extraordinary
lengths to conceal it -- including concocting false medical
bills and medical records. Such an attitude makes regulatory
oversight all the more difficult. However, with the
international press highlighting poor regulatory oversight of
the adoption industry, increased scrutiny will be essential
) particularly once Bulgaria and Romania enter the EU on
January 1, 2007. Over the past two years, the GoG has made
considerable progress on the trafficking issue, including by
signing a Child Repatriation Agreement with Albania. The
recent arrest cited in the IHT highlights the link between
trafficking in persons and weak regulatory oversight of
adoptions, usefully identifying another area where targeted
GOG action is needed. We will continue to raise this issue
with GOG officials, emphasizing the need for legislative
remedy and implementation. End comment.
COUNTRYMAN