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

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

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

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

"I had a happy childhood, but now my entire past felt like a deception," Anna, an English student at university, told AFP.

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

The scheme, uncovered by journalists and families searching for lost relatives, saw babies stolen from their mothers -- many of whom were told they had died -- and then sold to adoptive parents in Georgia and abroad.

Journalists have found that the illegal adoptions took place over more than 50 years, orchestrated by a network of maternity hospitals, nurseries and adoption agencies that colluded to take the children from their parents, falsify birth records, and place them with new families in exchange for cash.

- 'New reality' -

Elene and Anna, now 19, began unravelling their hidden past two years ago.

"We became friends without suspecting we might be sisters, but both of us felt there was some special bond between us," Elene, a psychology student, told AFP.

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

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

"I struggled to process the information, to accept the new reality -- the people who had raised me for 18 years are not my parents," said Anna.

"But I feel no anger whatsoever, only immense gratitude to the people who raised me, and joy at finding my flesh and blood," she added.

- 'Buy a baby' -

The test for Elene and Anna was arranged with the help of Georgian journalist Tamuna Museridze, who runs a Facebook group dedicated to reuniting babies stolen from their parents.

It has over 200,000 members -- including mothers who were told by hospital staff that their babies had died shortly after being born, but then discovered years later they might be alive.

Museridze set up the group in 2021 in a bid to find her own family after learning she had been adopted.

She soon uncovered the mass baby-selling operation.

"Mothers were told their babies had died shortly after birth and were buried at a hospital cemetery," Museridze said.

"In fact, hospitals had no cemeteries, and babies were being secretly whisked away and sold to adoptive parents."

The new parents were often unaware 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 decade-long waiting lists, Museridze told AFP.

She says she has 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 eventually quashed the scheme.

In Georgia, new parents would pay the equivalent of many months' salary to arrange the 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 they couldn't have children a year into their marriage.

"But adopting from an orphanage seemed virtually impossible due to incredibly long waiting lists," the 61-year-old economist told AFP.

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

Korkotadze said she "realised that was my chance," and agreed.

"They brought Elene right to my house," Korkotadze said, never suspecting there was "anything illegal."

"It took months of excruciating bureaucratic delays to formalise the adoption through court," she said.

The tale 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 thanks to Museridze's Facebook group.

Successive Georgian governments have made multiple attempts to investigate the scheme and have made a handful of arrests over the last 20 years.

Interior ministry spokesman, Tato Kuchava, told AFP that an "investigation is underway" into Museridze's revelations, but declined to provide further details.

Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said last week in parliament that Tbilisi is among the world leaders in combating trafficking.

But Museridze says the state's response has been lacking.

"The government did nothing tangible to help our efforts."