Officials to assist Irish couples

DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs officials are to travel to Guadalajara to provide consular assistance to Irish couples adopting…

DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs officials are to travel to Guadalajara to provide consular assistance to Irish couples adopting children in Mexico, who may have been trafficked internationally.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said his department had arranged for officials from the Irish embassy in Mexico to go to Guadalajara to discuss the issue with Irish couples who are affected, and also with the local authorities dealing with the proposed adoptions.

State prosecutors have begun interviewing 11 Irish couples, following the arrest of four Mexicans, including three women, suspected of buying babies, aged from two months upwards, to hand over for adoption.

A fourth woman aged 21 – arrested last week as she allegedly tried to sell two of her children – has been released on bail.

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The investigation into the illegal child trade is being led by state prosecutors from Jalisco, the central Mexican state where the arrests took place.

The Irish couples are understood to be staying with the babies they planned to adopt in Ajijic.

Mr Gilmore, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, said “we are going to provide the consular assistance to the couples. We will work with them and with the Mexican authorities,” he said in Belfast yesterday.