Greek authorities have arrested a Bulgarian national involved in an illegal child adoption ring operating between Bulgaria and Greece. The 30-year-old man was detained during a routine identity check in central Athens.

Police report that the individual is connected to at least six cases of illicit adoption involving Bulgarian children. As part of a criminal network, the man targeted vulnerable pregnant women in Bulgaria, offering them money in exchange for their newborns, which were then transferred to Greece for adoption.

Investigations reveal that he facilitated the transactions between the mothers and a network consisting of doctors and lawyers who helped legalize these adoptions. The man is said to have received over 10,000 euros for his role in brokering the arrangements.

The price per child has now escalated to over 30,000 euros, according to anti-trafficking investigators. Authorities have presented undisputed evidence proving the suspect profited from the sale of children. He has been referred to the prosecutor's office for further legal proceedings.

Finding a surrogate in Colombia is as easy as buying or selling a second-hand car in the classified ads. One need only go on Facebook to find dozens of ads: “Surrogate for hire, I’m from Colombia,” says one. “Hello, I am interested in becoming a surrogate. Strong womb and pregnancies without complications,” reads another. Like a huge auction, the messages compete with each other to offer potential clients what they believe are the most advantageous conditions. On these same websites, buyers make their demands clear. In general, the interested parties are looking for what any customer would seek in a classified ad: good quality at a fair price.

In Colombia, buying babies through surrogacy is becoming increasingly common. This practice – which is prohibited in Spain, France, Germany and elsewhere – is not regulated in Colombia. Dozens of agencies and clinics take advantage of that legal vacuum to do business, usually with foreigners who go to the Andean country looking for a surrogate and as little red tape as possible.

Yamile is a 33-year-old from Barranquilla. She is one of the women who advertising her services as a surrogate in an online forum. “We have a clinic here that does the whole procedure for you, and I have a cousin who takes care of all the paperwork for us,” she tells a potential client over the phone. Yamile can’t bring herself to say when she will be paid.

- How much are they offering?

- 20 million pesos [about $4,000].

At least 2,000 babies were born to Black GIs stationed in Britain during the second world war and a home was created for some of them: Holnicote House in Somerset. Those who grew up there are now telling their stories

When Carol Edwards and her daughter went on a walking weekend to Holnicote House, a hotel on Exmoor in Somerset, a guide gave them a tour of the property, explaining the estate’s 500-year history. “The story ended at about 1945,” Edwards says. “So afterwards, I said to him: ‘You missed a section out.’” Edwards knew this because she had lived at Holnicote House for the first five years of her life, along with 25 other children like her, immediately after the second world war. All of the children were orphans, all were mixed race: their mothers were white British women, their fathers were African American GIs who had been stationed in Britain during the war.

Edwards was one of what US newspapers would call “brown babies”. At least 2,000 of these children were born during the war, at a time when there were just 7-10,000 Black people in the entire UK. So these “brown babies” increased the population of Black Britons by about 25 per cent. Over half are believed to have been given up for adoption, but Holnicote House, which was requisitioned by Somerset county council in 1943, was the only children’s home specifically dedicated to them. Edwards, 79, has positive memories of her time there. “They cared for us and they loved us all,” she says. “We were all treated the same and never made to feel different … I really do feel quite privileged to have spent my first five years there. I think I was one of the lucky ones.”

For the other “brown babies” the picture is more varied, says Dr Chamion Caballero, cofounder of the Mixed Museum, a digital archive of Britain’s history of racial mixing. They carried the double stigma of being mixed race and being born outside marriage, and they were treated as a problem by the authorities. “No one knew what to do with them,” she says. Most of them found themselves the only person of colour in very white rural areas, where they stood out, experienced discrimination and had no connection to Black communities. Those that did gravitate to Black communities in cities like London, Liverpool or Bristol also often faced discrimination for being “not Black enough”.

In short:

An Indonesian man has been charged after allegedly selling his child on Facebook for the equivalent of about $1,450 to buy two mobile phones and fund online gambling.

The child was recovered from the couple that bought him and returned to his mother last week.

What's next?

Experts say economic incentives for struggling mothers and a lack information about legal adoption are part of the reason why baby trafficking remains a problem in Indonesia.

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Victims who were matched to the wrong biological parents in Spoorloos , want to be heard under oath in court by the makers of the KRO-NCRV program and the departing presenter Derk Bolt. The mismatches were in the news about two years ago and according to the victims, the bottom stone in the case has still not been found.

'For clients, the book Spoorloos is not closed', their lawyers Annemiek van Spanje and Royce de Vries tell this site after reporting by RTL Boulevard . 'Not only because they still have to live with the consequences of the mismatches, but also because they have not reached a suitable solution with KRO-NCRV. A month ago, KRO-NCRV therefore announced that the court would be requested to hold a preliminary witness hearing, in which clients want to hear Derk Bolt as a witness, among others.'

Such an interrogation is a preliminary stage of a civil procedure, in which the victims may claim compensation. But first it must be clear who exactly was to blame for the course of events. According to the victims, the news about the departure of presenter Bolt came shortly after the lawyers had informed the makers that they wanted to hear him under oath. 'Clients do not know whether this upcoming legal process was the reason for Derk Bolt's departure. They do find the timing remarkable', according to Van Spanje and De Vries.

'Incorrect and unfortunate'

Judge describes 'wicked and selfish' motive of using daughter to provide parent with a fourth child

A mother forced her 14-year-old adopted daughter to inseminate herself with donor sperm to provide a baby for her after she was prevented from adopting any more children, it can be revealed.

The daughter, a virgin, is believed to have miscarried at 14, but went on to have a baby at 16 after regularly inseminating herself with sperm bought over the internet by her "domineering" mother because she was too scared to refuse.

Every time I read an article about the history of Korean adoption I am reminded of Harry and Bertha Holt’s role in jump-starting adoptions from Korea.  Articles often reference the fact that they adopted eight children, but never have I come across any more information about who they are and what they did.

I’ve often wondered what their lives were like growing up being adopted.  What were the family dynamics like in such a large household, and what insights can they share seeing the Korean adoptee community grow through organized non-profits, conferences and the blogosphere?

A few years ago when I first visited Korea, I was told that one of the Holt children committed suicide.  It was something that consumed me for a long time after my trip.  But it had somehow faded away until I was reading another article and it dawned on me that I had never attempted to find out anything about the circumstances of his death, or the other adoptees in the family.

Let’s start with what I’ve been able to find on the Holt KADs.

Harry and Bertha did indeed adopt eight children from Korea.  Here are their names:

SEOUL, May 10 (Yonhap) -- The government plans to establish a state-led adoption system to better ensure the well-being of adoptees and reduce the number of children adopted overseas, health ministry officials said Friday.

The announcement of the adoption system reform comes ahead of the scheduled implementation of laws on overseas and domestic adoption in July next year, aimed at enhancing the rights and well-being of adoptees and adoptive families.

In the envisioned system, the central and the regional government will take over the adoption process, currently managed by private agencies, to facilitate the placement of adoptees with new parents and provide support for adoptive families.

Under the measures, local governments will permit adoption only when it is determined to be in the best interest of the child, and the heads of regional municipalities will assume the role of official guardians to safeguard the adoptees until the adoption process is completed.

The health ministry, meanwhile, will be responsible for selecting candidates for overseas adoption and verifying the qualifications of prospective adoptive parents.