More Children Rescued From Child Trafficking Ring

Have you been following this story? Looks like 12 more children have been rescued from this child trafficking ring in China:

In the continuing crackdown on human trafficking that started in April, twelve more abducted children were rescued by police in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

That brings the number of rescued children in Guangxi to 31, of whom 20 have been reunited with their families.

Nineteen of the reunited children were from Guangxi and one is from Yunnan Province, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

The reunited kids were linked to their parents through DNA tests and a DNA database set up by the Ministry of Public Security.

The police have taken into custody five people suspected of running a multi-provincial human trafficking ring. The chief suspect surnamed Lan confessed to police that his ring has sold more than 30 kids in rich southern Chinese provinces, according to a former report.

Lan said he used little pets and balloons to lure little boys from migrant worker families in Guangxi. He said he almost succeeded every time when he tried to abduct a child.

He said he earned between 20,000 and 40,000 yuan for each boy he sold in Fujian, according to the report.

Some children are sold for adoption to childless couples, and others are trained as beggars or prostitutes.

My kids are from Guangxi Province, so this story has really hit close to home. Sometimes international adoptive parents look at these stories and simply heave a sigh of relief when they realize it only implicates domestic adoption, not international adoption. I understand that reaction, but in reality we should all care about child trafficking, no matter what. For one thing, as China (finally) cracks down on child trafficking, traffickers may be looking to "dump" children they may have already taken as the police draw near. Taking them to an orphanage would be a great way to do that. From the orphanage, they may find themselves adopted internationally by unwitting adoptive parents.