120,000 babies 'stolen': trafficking scandal in Georgia

Georgian student Elene Deisadze was browsing TikTok in 2022 when she came across the profile of a girl, Anna Panchulidze, who looked exactly like her.

Months later, after talking and becoming friends, they both separately learned they were adopted and decided last year to take a DNA test.

It was revealed that they were not only related, but were identical twins.

READ ALSO :

“I had a happy childhood, but now my whole past seems like a disappointment,” Anna, an English student at the university, told AFP.

Far from being an innocent case of separation at birth, the sisters are among tens of thousands of Georgian children who have been illegally sold in a decades-long baby trafficking scandal.

The operation, uncovered by journalists and families searching for missing relatives, saw babies stolen from their mothers – many of whom were told were dead – and sold to adoptive parents in Georgia and abroad.

The journalists discovered that the illegal adoptions took place for more than 50 years, orchestrated by a network of maternity homes, daycare centers and adoption agencies that colluded to take children from their parents, falsify birth certificates and place them with new families in exchange for money.

– “New reality” –
Elene and Anna, now 19, began unraveling their hidden past two years ago.

“We became friends without suspecting that we could be sisters, but we both felt that there was a special bond between us,” Elene, a psychology student, told AFP.

ALSO READ: Two Nigerian students ranked first in New Zealand, competing for $10,000

Last summer, both of their parents independently told the girls that they were adopted — revelations they had long planned to make.

It was then that the couple decided to take the genetic test that would reveal they were identical twins.

“I had a hard time processing the information, accepting the new reality: the people who raised me for 18 years are not my parents,” Anna said.

“But I don't feel any anger, only immense gratitude to the people who raised me and the joy of finding my flesh and blood again,” she added.

– “Buy a baby” –
The test for Elene and Anna was organized with the help of Georgian journalist Tamuna Museridze, who runs a Facebook group dedicated to reuniting stolen babies with their parents.

ALSO READ: £235m set to be withdrawn from cash machines as voters head to the polls in UK

It has more than 200,000 members, including mothers who were told by hospital staff that their baby had died shortly after birth, but found out years later that it might be alive.

Museridze created the group in 2021 with the aim of finding her own family after learning she was adopted.

She quickly discovered the massive baby sales operation.

“The mothers were told that their babies had died shortly after birth and were buried in a hospital cemetery,” Museridze said.

“In fact, the hospitals had no cemeteries and the babies were secretly taken away and sold to adoptive parents.”

New parents were often unaware that the adoptions were illegal and told fabricated stories about the circumstances.

“Some people, however, consciously chose to circumvent the law and buy a baby” to avoid decades-long waiting lists, Museridze told AFP.

She claims to have evidence that at least 120,000 babies “were stolen from their parents and sold” between 1950 and 2006, when anti-trafficking measures by reformist President Mikheil Saakashvili finally ended the program.

In Georgia, new parents were paying the equivalent of several months' wages to arrange adoption, while babies trafficked abroad were sold for up to $30,000, Museridze said.

– 'Virtually impossible' –
Elene's adoptive mother, Lia Korkotadze, decided with her husband to adopt after learning that they could not have children a year after their marriage.

ALSO READ: Social Media: Agents and Agenda

“But adopting from an orphanage seemed virtually impossible because of the incredibly long waiting lists,” the 61-year-old economist told AFP.

In 2005, an acquaintance told him about a six-month-old baby available for adoption at a local hospital – for a fee.

Korkotadze said she “realized this was my chance” and accepted.

“They brought Elene straight to my house,” Korkotadze said, never suspecting that there was “something illegal.”

“It took months of excruciating bureaucratic delays to formalize the adoption in court,” she said.

The story of Anna and Elene mirrors that of another set of twin sisters – Anna Sartania and Tako Khvitia.

They were separated at birth and sold to different parents, managing to reunite years later after finding each other on social media.

More than 800 families have been reunited through Museridze's Facebook group.

ALSO READ: Suspected jihadist attack in Mali leaves more than 20 civilians dead on Monday