KUWAIT: A senior interior ministry official said infant trafficking is on the rise in Kuwait and babies are being offered for sale at brothels for KD 250 each. "It is already sad enough that human trafficking is becoming a fact in a country like Kuwait that cares for humanity and humane activities, but this is a disaster," said Lt Col Haitham Al-Othman, manager of the ministry's vice and anti-trafficking department.

Othman said newborn baby trafficking cases have increased due to the delivery of illegitimate babies at homes, where a midwife purchases the baby from mothers who wish to get rid of them and resell it to buyers, who register them at their countries' embassies. Othman added six cases had so far been referred to the public prosecution involving human trafficking and buying Asian women who are forced to work as prostitutes. "This includes a Syrian who ran the largest prostitution network ever busted in Kuwait, comprising of Asian women," he said.

Speaking at a workshop hosted by the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Othman stressed selling illegal babies was a strange phenomenon in Kuwait and that several such cases take place at the maternity hospital on a daily basis. "In some cases, a pregnant woman prefers giving birth at home and sell the baby to the midwife," he explained. Notably, Ahmadi detectives recently arrested a Filipina who worked as a midwife for women who got pregnant outside wedlock and wished to get rid of their babies. The suspect sold each baby for KD 250, and when arrested, still had several more infants waiting to be sold. - Al-Rai