The United States Consulate in Karachi tipped off Pakistani authorities about suspected illegal adoptions, which led to the arrest of the head of a Karachi-based non-governmental organization on charges of child smuggling.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Mubina Qasim Agboatwala, who runs Hope Ngo after a court rejected her pre-arrest bail. She is accused of sending at least 23 children to the United States.

The FIA’s anti-human trafficking unit began investigating after the US Consulate raised concerns about suspicious adoptions involving Pakistani children. Officials say the children were sent overseas without following legal procedures, and in many cases, their parents were unaware or misled.

According to investigators, the NGO operated without a valid license from the Sindh Social Welfare Department and used forged documents to declare the children as abandoned or orphaned. These children were then placed with foreign families without proper legal approvals.

Child rights activists say the case highlights serious weaknesses in Pakistan’s child protection system. They are urging the government to improve oversight of organizations involved in child welfare and adoption.

Nine people, including an Irish missionary and a three-year-old child, were kidnapped from an orphanage near Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince on Sunday, an official has said.

Gena Heraty, the facility's director, was among those taken from the privately-run Sainte-Hélène orphanage in Kenscoff during the early hours of the morning, according to Mayor Massillon Jean.

Seven employees and a child were also taken from the orphanage, which cares for more than 240 children, some with disabilities.

Attackers broke into the orphanage at about 15:30 local time (07:30 GMT) "without opening fire," Jean said, describing it as a "planned act".

The attackers had broken through a wall to enter the property, Jean said, before heading to the building where Ms Heraty was staying.

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When Betty travels to her native Ethiopia and meets her family, she discovers the real reason she ended up with a Dutch adoptive family. "My sister and I were sold like merchandise."

We're sitting in the same spot as a year ago: the spacious L-shaped sofa in Betty's studio. And once again, the hostess is serving tea and chocolate. We talked about the book she'd written: Mom, I Can't Do It Anymore . A compelling account of her childhood, filled with humiliation and violence in a Dutch adoptive family.

Now I'm in Hellevoetsluis to hear about Betty's journey to Ethiopia. There, in East Africa, she finally met the family that wouldn't have had a place for her 28 years ago. Betty always wondered why.

The trip to Ethiopia was exciting, she says. "Because every adopted child who goes searching for their roots knows that a can of worms can open up."

Beaten and shaved bald

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Illustration by Leah Abucayan/CNN/Courtesy of Marianne Ok Nielsen and Han Tae-soon

(Left) Marianne Ok Nielsen reunites with her mother. (Right) Han Tae-soon meets her daughter after 44 years apart.

SeoulCNN — 

Marianne Ok Nielsen never wanted children, or a family of her own. She used to tell friends she didn’t feel worthy of that kind of life.

A return trip to the country of origin

A return trip to your country of origin can be a life-changing experience. Based on the personal stories of adoptees and insights from (still limited) scientific research, we offer a glimpse into what such a return trip can mean for adoptees and the considerations that may play a role.

Reasons to travel back

Adoptees' reasons for traveling back home vary widely and vary from person to person. Some want to get to know the country and its culture better or visit tourist spots. Others seek out places and contacts listed in their adoption records, or hope to reconnect with their first family.

For many, it is also a way to gain more insight into their background and identity – to see with their own eyes where their story began.

The babies were then purchased for 11-16 million Indonesian rupiah (approximately NIS 2,260 to NIS 3,300).

Police in Indonesia uncovered a massive baby trafficking ring and rescued six infants about to be sold, according to BBC News Indonesia. All the babies were around a year old.

The ring has sold at least 25 babies, 12 male and 13 female, to buyers in Singapore since 2023 and authorities have now arrested 13 individuals connected to the trafficking ring in Pontianak and Tangerang.

"The babies were first housed in Pontianak and had their immigration documents arranged before being sent to Singapore," West Java Police's director of general criminal investigation, Surawan, told BBC News Indonesia.

JPost Videos

Sexual violence is a terrible inevitability of any war-zone. Lejla Damon was born of rape during the Bosnian war. She speaks to the Mirror about finding her birth mother and discovering her roots

Smuggled across a border at just nine days old, Lejla Damon knew little of her birth mother. But as she grew up, she discovered that her beginnings were rooted in conflict.
Speaking to exclusively to The Mirror, Lejla tells me she is a child of sexual violence carried out during the Bosnian war. We spoke about the first time she met her birth mother and returning to Bosnia, where staff at the maternity unit knew her story before she did.
Lejla was born on Christmas Day 1992 in war-torn Bosnia. Her mother had endured an horrendous ordeal. Lejla’s birth mother, who we will not be identifying here to ensure her privacy, was held for seven months in a school at the beginning of the conflict. It was during this time that she was repeatedly raped and tortured.
She said: “The premise of it was to impregnate and hold on to the women for as long as possible knowing that they wouldn't be able to get an abortion and then let them go when they were too heavily pregnant.” She explains that the aim of this was “to change the genetic makeup of a society.”
So when the two journalists who would go on to become Lejla’s parents met her birth mother, she was in a state of extreme suffering. Dan and Sian Damon were in Bosnia to report on the conflict for a British news broadcaster, when they interviewed Lejla’s birth mother.
In that video interview, Lejla tells me that, her mother said: “I would become like the men that raped her and that if she held me that she would strangle me.”

Talking to me now, she says she has enormous sympathy for her mother. She explains: “It takes courage to give your child up for adoption no matter what you went through… she allowed me to have an incredible life full of extreme privilege.”

Growing up in the UK, Lejla said she felt, like all kids, the intense urge to fit in with her peers. But when in primary school, her class were tasked with creating an ‘About Me’ Powerpoint slide, she came to know more about her roots.

Specially selected for you by the FD editorial team: six articles from the past week that are more than worth reading this Sunday.

This weekend

An uncrackable chip, the trenches of Poland and a plea for a new Thorbecke