Iranian authorities have locked down on three men, who had reportedly attempted selling babies on Instagram, the social media platform. A 20-day old baby and a 2-month-old infant were rescued from them while the third one has been identified, but is yet to be found. One of those arrested allegedly said he was “getting babies from poor families” and “handing them over to families who could provide a better future”.
The rescued babies were apparently advertised for 400 to 500 million Iranian Riyals, which is about $9000 to $11,800. They were allegedly bought from ‘poor families’ for 50 to 150 million Iranian Riyals.
Police had made the arrests after being alerted about “ads on Instagram for selling babies”. The officers uncovered “10 to 15 such pages” on the photo-sharing service and found the two babies with the three men who were arrested, he said. The babies were handed over to social services.
Speaking about this a spokesperson of the microblogging site had said that this was under investigation and that they strictly do not support such illegal exploitation or trafficking activities.
Iran is one of the 21 ‘tier three’ countries Listed under the United States ‘Annual Trafficking in Persons’ report, meaning that it one of the highest numbers of human trafficking offenders in the world.