عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Morocco Dismantles Newborn Trafficking Network

A member of the special forces of General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance of Morocco (DGST) poses during the fourth edition of the General Directorate for National Security's (DGSN) open days in the northern city of Fez on May 21, 2023. (AFP)
A member of the special forces of General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance of Morocco (DGST) poses during the fourth edition of the General Directorate for National Security's (DGSN) open days in the northern city of Fez on May 21, 2023. (AFP)
TT
TT

Morocco Dismantles Newborn Trafficking Network

A member of the special forces of General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance of Morocco (DGST) poses during the fourth edition of the General Directorate for National Security's (DGSN) open days in the northern city of Fez on May 21, 2023. (AFP)
A member of the special forces of General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance of Morocco (DGST) poses during the fourth edition of the General Directorate for National Security's (DGSN) open days in the northern city of Fez on May 21, 2023. (AFP)

Moroccan security services arrested 30 suspects for their involvement in acts of extortion, threats, and trafficking of newborn babies in Fez.

The suspects include 18 security agents, a doctor, two nurses, healthcare professionals, and intermediaries, according to the Moroccan News Agency.

The agency quoted a security source as saying that the judicial police, in coordination with the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST), arrested 30 people on suspicion of involvement in extortion, threats, manipulation, benefiting from public medical services, and trafficking newborn infants.

The source did not clarify the number of children trafficked by network.

Preliminary data from the investigation shows that individuals among the arrestees were acting as intermediaries in the sale of newborns in complicity with single mothers and in exchange for money.

They would then sell babies to families wishing to adopt abandoned children, the security source added.

According to the source, other suspects are presumed to be involved in acts of extortion against patients and their families in exchange for appointments for consultation, diagnosis, or visits, as well as intermediation in the illegal practice of abortion and the issuance of medical certificates containing false data.

Some of the detainees are also involved in the forgery of medical consultation appointments, theft, and waste of medical supplies as well as their sale, among other criminal charges.

Searches carried out at the homes of some of the arrested security agents enabled police to seize prescription-only medications, medications that are not for sale, medical equipment, and money.

Police put all the suspects in custody for further investigation to identify all criminal acts attributed to them, as well as to arrest possible accomplices involved in the crime.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

UN Refugee Chief Says Airstrikes in Lebanon Have Violated Humanitarian Law

A general view shows damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Choueifat, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
A general view shows damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Choueifat, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
TT
TT

UN Refugee Chief Says Airstrikes in Lebanon Have Violated Humanitarian Law

A general view shows damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Choueifat, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
A general view shows damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Choueifat, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

The United Nations' refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on Sunday that airstrikes in Lebanon had violated international humanitarian law by hitting civilian infrastructure and killing civilians, in reference to Israel's bombardment of the country.

"Unfortunately, many instances of violations of international humanitarian law in the way the airstrikes are conducted that have destroyed or damaged civilian infrastructure, have killed civilians, have impacted humanitarian operations," he told media in Beirut, Reuters reported.

Grandi was in Lebanon as it struggles to cope with the displacement of more than 1.2 million people as a result of an expanded Israeli air and ground operation.

Fighting had previously been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, in parallel to Israel's war in Gaza against Palestinian group Hamas.

Grandi said all parties to the conflict and those with influence on them should "stop this carnage that is happening both in Gaza and in Lebanon today".

More than 2,000 people have been killed and nearly 10,000 wounded in Lebanon in nearly a year of fighting, most in the past two weeks, the Lebanese health ministry says. Israel says around 50 civilians and soldiers have been killed.

Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, while Lebanese authorities say civilians have been targeted.

Israel accuses both Hezbollah and Hamas of hiding among civilians, which they deny.

Grandi said the World Health Organization briefed him "about egregious violations of IHL in respect of health facilities in particular that have been impacted in various locations of Lebanon", using an acronym for international humanitarian law.

Attacks on civilian homes may also be violations, though the matter requires further assessment, he said.

The fighting has led some 220,000 people to cross the Lebanese border with Syria, 70% of whom are Syrians and 30% Lebanese, Grandi said, saying these were conservative estimates.

Israel's bombardment of the main border crossing with Syria at Masnaa on Friday was "a huge obstacle", to those flows of people continuing, he said.

Many of the Syrians leaving Lebanon had sought refuge and fled war and a security crackdown after the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Now was an opportunity for the Syrian government to show that returnees' "safety and ability to go back to their homes or wherever they need to go is respected", Grandi said.