The orphanages were overcrowded and filthy, the living conditions unworthy. beginning of
The orphanages were overcrowded and filthy, the living conditions unworthy. At the beginning of the 1990s, Romanian children were redeemed through adoptions - so it seemed. But what actually became of them is uncertain. The fear: Many could have fallen into the hands of human traffickers.
BUCHAREST. When twins Zoe and Mikaela Radford were left by their birth parents in a maternity ward in the small Romanian town of Puciosa in 1991, they were only a few days old. They were adopted and moved to Canada with their foster parents - it is said. Little Jonathan Yourtee was probably taken to a hospital in Constanta by his parents. In 1991 he was taken over by a family from the United States. Later, the new parents also adopted Jonathan's brother Matthew. In 1995 he left home, the destination is unknown.
Reporters from the Romanian newspaper "Romania Libera" tried in vain to find out what became of Zoe and Mikaela, Jonathan and Matthew. They are just four of thousands of cases, of whom nobody knows how they ended up growing up and where exactly they live. Today they would have to be young adults - Romania's forgotten children who disappeared from the country's overcrowded orphanages after the collapse of communism over 20 years ago. At that time, trading in children became an international business.
Anyone could "pick up" a child in Romania if they wanted to. Without a lot of bureaucracy and long waiting times, as is usually the case with adoptions. However, as soon as the children left the Romanian border, their tracks were lost. Quite a few, it is feared, could have fallen into the hands of human traffickers and been forced into prostitution.