Indonesia's baby traffickers target poor families as demand grows

Indonesian authorities have sentenced 19 people involved in a baby-trafficking ring that trafficked at least 28 infants, many of whom were adopted in Singapore. The syndicate's alleged ringleader, 70-year-old Lie Siu Luan, received a seven-year prison sentence earlier this week.

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This is only the tip of the iceberg, either in illegal adoption or baby trade. The parents who sell their babies are embarrassed to report it to us.

Prosecutors detailed how Lie was approached by a Singaporean man offering approximately $20,000 per child. She allegedly used a network to find young boys and girls, targeting vulnerable mothers across West Java. The syndicate members offered money for newborns, paid nannies to care for the infants, and falsified birth certificates and passports for the babies. Some members posed as fake parents to accompany the children to Singapore for adoption.

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The parents who sell their babies are usually those who can't accept them.

This case is one of several suspected trafficking syndicates operating in Indonesia. In 2022, a particularly egregious case involved at least 57 people found caged on a palm oil plantation in North Sumatra. Official figures from the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection show over 1,400 child trafficking reports between 2020 and 2025, but the Indonesian Child Protection Commissioner, Diyah Puspitarini, warns this is likely just the "tip of the iceberg."

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It looks like the root cause is economic … our investigation shows the victims needed money, so they gave up their babies for others to take care of.

Puspitarini suggests that many cases go unreported because parents who sell their babies are often too embarrassed or cannot accept their situation. West Java Police Senior Commissioner Ade Sapari identified financial hardship as the root cause, stating that many mothers gave up their babies due to economic necessity. The recent case surfaced only after a parent complained about not receiving payment for their child. The pervasive financial pressures on Indonesian families are seen as a major factor, pushing poor mothers to sell or give away children outside the state care system.

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The majority of the parents are financially in need, so most of them have economic reasons to sell their babies … they're poor, they can't afford it.