Panagiatis Surukli was adopted in Cyprus. However, he and his parents recently learned that he had fallen victim to a child trafficking ring in Georgia. Panagiatis was allegedly declared dead after birth, then sold for adoption. “We found out that I had been stolen and illegally adopted. It was a shock for everyone”, the young man told DW.
Agonizing search
Now Panagiatis regularly travels to Georgia in search of his biological parents. There he is helped by the organization “Vedzeb”, which in Georgian means “I am looking”. At the airport in Kutaisi, he was met by Maya, who works for this organization and helps Panayiatis.
At first, the man thought he had been legally adopted and simply wanted to check if he had any siblings. "I handed over my documents to the Georgian embassy in Cyprus, and they explained to me that they were not real, but forged," the 22-year-old said. Now he hopes that he will still be able to find his family roots.
The schemes date back to the times of the USSR
The scandal with illegal adoptions has shaken Georgia - Panayiatis is just one of the many victims of this crime. The roots of this human trafficking scheme date back to the Soviet era, says the organization “Vedzeb”.
It was founded by journalist Tamuna Museridze five years ago, when she herself was trying to find her biological parents. Then she came across many other adopted people on the Internet who were searching in vain for their relatives. This is how the criminal scheme came to light.
Museridze says that high-ranking officials in Georgia were also involved in human trafficking. “After 1993, they started selling babies abroad. It is impossible to sell a child without having various documents - visas, plane tickets, fees for notaries, lawyers, judges, permits from ministries,”, explains the journalist. According to her, some of those involved are still in government positions and have no interest in the investigation getting to the truth.
How did the network work?
Tamuna Museridze found out that the hospital in the city of Gori, for example, was trafficking children. “The hospital director would tell the mothers that the child was feeling unwell and needed to be sent elsewhere for treatment. Then they would tell them that the child had died and was buried in the cemetery of the foreign hospital”, the journalist explains. However, she and her team found that such cemeteries had never existed in any of the mentioned hospitals. From “Vedzeb” It is estimated that at least 100,000 children were declared dead in Georgian hospitals and then sold.
Panagiatis also continues to search for relatives, although he has experienced more than one disappointment: “It’s difficult, because every time it seems like we are getting closer and closer to a result, and then we are back to square one,” says the young man. However, he does not lose hope and hopes that the DNA tests he is doing will sooner or later lead him to his parents.
Author: Alexander Shtensel