International Adoptions Market Value: $1.3 Billion
The 2005 EU Organized Crime Report stated that an estimated 1 million children are involved in illegal adoptions. The market value of these adoptions are estimated to be worth EUR 1 billion ($1.3 Billion) a year.
Source: EUROPOL, “2005 EU Organized Crime Report”, October 25, 2005, pg.16, (accessed: March 25, 2007).
Gray area of international adoptions
The difference between the illicit trade in infants and legitimate intercountry adoptions is at times difficult to monitor. As Ethan Kapstein writes in Foreign Affairs, “the difference may be clear conceptually, but it is not always clear in reality.”
“Buying infants is illegal covering the cost of raising then until they are adopted is not,” Kapstein [...]
$5,000 to $25,000 to adopt a child on the black market
Source: Ethan Kapstein, ” The Baby Trade,” Foreign Affairs, November/December 2003, pg. 115-125.
Children from Romania were being bought for $20,000 to $30,000
Source: ” Baby trade,” The Economist, February 7, 2004, pg. 50.
9.5 million children are living in developing world orphanages
Source: Ethan Kapstein, ” The Baby Trade,” Foreign Affairs, November/December 2003, pg. 115-125.
30 to 90 percent of adoptions in Switzerland are outside offical channels
In Switzerland, out of the nearly 600 children adopted from abroad, 30 to 90 percent are handled outside of official channels.
Source: “Unicef sounds alarm over child trafficking,” Swissinfo, October 18, 2007,(accessed: October 19, 2007).
