Authorities pay special attention to trafficking in children – Speaker

Authorities pay a special attention to the fight against trafficking in human beings and particularly to trafficking in children, Speaker Marian Lupu said at the meeting with Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, member of the PACE Committee for Social Problems, Health and Family, who is paying a visit to Moldova in order to investigate the cases when the new-borns disappear for illegal adoption. According to a press release from the Parliament, the speaker emphasised the fact that a national campaign on the deinstitutionalisation of children, reforming the residential system, and placing children in families is being implemented. For her part, the PACE official asked about the legislation and institutional system of Moldova on adoptions, as well as about the legal provisions related to the trafficking in human beings and the sanctions applied to the persons that are involved in these felonies. At the same time, the European official asked information about the provided social protection, especially to single mothers and the social allowances for children. According to the Council of Europe, the goal of the visit is to investigate the advertisements in the newspapers by means of which single mothers were asked to sell their children for a subsequent illegal adoption, as well as to investigate in detail trafficking in new-borns. “I want to help this country and other European countries to fight against trafficking in children, if it will be proven that such an illegal activity took place”, Vermot-Mangold stated before her departure.