Human Smugglers Try Smuggling Over 100 Children From Chad For Adoption In France

October 27, 2007 10:30 a.m. EST

Geneva, Switzerland (AHN) - Authorities are now looking for the family members of 103 children, aged to 8, who human smugglers tried to spirit out of Chad for adoption in France.

The attempt to separate the children from their parents was an "illegal and totally irresponsible move," the United Nations Children's Fund said in a statement on Friday.

Tracing the families of the children will be extremely difficult, said UNICEF spokesperson Veronique Taveau, because of the children's ages and the fact that they have no identifying papers.

And it was not clear yet whether some children may originate from Sudan, she told journalists in Geneva.

UNICEF and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees are now helping to provide relief to the 103 children, who were prevented from flying out of the country by Chadian authorities in the eastern town of Abeche.

Taveau stressed that what happened had violated international rules, such as The Hague Convention on international adoption and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Children who are separated from their parents and their communities through natural catastrophes or armed conflicts, should not be assumed to be orphans with no living close relative, she said.

The case was not an isolated incident but it was highly visible because of the size of the group of children, she said