Thai Facebook page exposes FB group that invites bids for babies
A well-known Thai Facebook page has reported that a group of people were selling their babies via a Facebook group, now inaccessible.
Pakpoom Dechhasdin, also known as “More Lab Panda”, posted a picture showing that large number of posts captured from Thai netizens in the group showed that some were seeking to pay a sum of money for Thai female babies from the northern part of Thailand.
A Facebook user in the baby-sellers group asked why people weren’t opting for legal adoption. One person replied that going through the legal process would involve a lot of paperwork, qualifications and would cost much more than just simply buying a baby on the Facebook group.
The prospective buyer said that he was earning only 18,500 baht a month, which many adoption agencies reject as inadequate.
Several Facebook pages reported that in the group that teen mums would post pictures saying they were pregnant, and ask people to bid for their babies.
Many times this would turn out to be a scam. Prospective baby buyers, after supporting the pregnant teens for nine full months in the hope of getting a child, would find a supposedly pregnant teen ghosting them.
A group member posted that they had spent more than 50,000 baht trying to adopt a child and had been scammed many times.
After the Facebook page generated social media interest, many netizens expressed concern that these adoptions were not done with honest intention and pointed towards human trafficking.
The private Facebook baby sale group is currently locked and not visible on online search.
UNICEF reported that up to 400,000 Internet users aged 12-17 in Thailand were victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse cases per year, but only 1-3 per cent of children had filed such cases with the police.
