Russia launches inquiry into US child trafficking

Russian officials say the government has launched an investigation into suspected child trafficking in the United States, after a Reuters report found adopted children being traded on the Internet.

Russia’s Investigative Committee opened the case following a Reuters report revealing an underground market where foster parents sought out new families for children they no longer wanted, a spokesperson said Thursday.

Parents connected via online forums like Yahoo and Facebook, arranging custody transfers in private that can bypass government oversight and sometimes violate the law.

The investigation found “adopted Russian children being transferred to different families in breach of their rights,” said spokesman Vladimir Markin.

He added that 26 Russian children were traded through internet forums, some of whom were later found to be victims of sexual abuse.

Russia has imposed a series of measures since the end of last year to protect the rights of Russian adopted children after several reported deaths and cases of abuse of Russian adoptees in the custody of US citizens.

On December 28, Russia approved the Dima Yakovlev law, which bans Americans from adopting Russian children. The adoption ban took effect on January 1, 2013.

The legislation was named after a Russian toddler who died in 2008 of heat stroke due to the negligence of his adoptive father – an American.

In addition, on July 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning same-sex couples, single people or unmarried couples to adopt Russian children to countries where gay marriages are allowed.