Seventeen pregnant teenage girls and 11 babies were rescued Friday from a Nigerian home that’s a suspected baby factory, police in the southeastern Imo province said.
“The girls claimed they were fed once a day and were not allowed to leave the home,” said police spokeswoman Joy Elomoko, in BBC.
Authorities are still seeking the woman who is suspected of selling babies at the home, BBC reported. A 23-year-old man suspected of impregnating the teens has been arrested.
“Baby factories,” as they’re called, BBC said, are not uncommon in parts of Nigeria. The babies are sold at illegal adoptions, sold into slavery or labor, or — when they’re grown — put to work as prostitutes. European Union statistics show Nigeria and China as the biggest traffickers in humans.
Babies can sell for about $6,400 each, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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