The Australian government is investigating a media report that 13 Indian children may have been stolen from their parents as part of a child-trafficking network and brought to Australia for adoption.
Timemagazine reported today that an Indian-based adoption agency renamed children and fabricated their histories, complete with photographs of fake mothers offering them for adoption.
It said it had seen adoption agency documents for 13 such children.
An Indian-based human rights lawyer told
Timethat an estimated 30 of the nearly 400 children brought to Australia in the last 10 to 15 years were trafficked.
Australian Attorney-General Robert McClelland said he was aware child trafficking may have been involved in two adoption cases. His department was investigating the magazine report.
"At some stage there was child trafficking involved prior to them coming into contact with the agency involved in India," Mr McClelland told reporters today.
Mr McClelland said he knew where one of the children was now living, but refused to disclose the location. He said Australia was no longer working with the Indian-based adoption agency in the
Timereport.
Timemagazine detailed one adoption case involving a nine-year-old girl from Chennai, who it said was stolen while her mother went to a market and adopted in 2000 by a family in Australia's tropical Queensland state.