By NNN-Bernama,
Melbourne : The Queensland State Government has pledged to help authorities investigating claims that poor Indian children have been kidnapped and adopted out to Australian families.
More than a dozen attractive children kidnapped from Indian slums have been adopted in Australia, TIME Magazine has reported.
The magazine interviewed an Indian mother named Fatima whose two-year-old daughter Zabeen was allegedly kidnapped seven years ago.
According to the magazine, police in India now say she was processed by Malaysian Social Services (MSS) and adopted by a family in Queensland.
Queensland Child Safety Minister Margaret Keech described the allegations as concerning.
“This is a terrible predicament for a family who loves their adoptive children,” Keech is quoted by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as saying.
“Adoption Services Queensland (ASQ) will offer any assistance it can to Indian, federal and state agencies investigating the claims.
She said they found only two of the 23 adoptions were through MSS and one was adopted two years before the period of 1998-99, when children were allegedly kidnapped in India.
Adoptions from India had to be authorised by a court, she said.
“The adoption of the Queensland child who was allegedly stolen was authorised by the Madras High Court in March 2000,” she said.
TIME Magazine said Indian police believed at least 13 kidnapped children have been adopted by Australian families.