Although the October 8 earthquake is a great human tragedy, for the human traffickers it is a perfect 'business opportunity'.
The mafia has become active creatively. Human smugglers are collecting information about
children and women who have lost their parents and spouses respectively. They visit various relief camps, pretend to be the close relatives of such victims and claim their custody.
Then a lot of people want to adopt orphan children. Some of them out of genuine reason, but a majority of them are looking for domestic helpers, particularly, babysitters.
The women trade under the cover of
marriage is not a bizarre phenomenon in Pakistan. A friend of mine fell in love with someone and asked his widower father -- a retired army colonel -- to arrange his marriage. The father imposed a condition on the son ie he
would have to arrange a bride for him first. The son went to Swat (a city in North West Frontier Province where brides are sold) and bought his 'step-mother' by paying 25,000 rupees. The father married the girl and then arranged his son's marriage!
Army doctors are in ideal positions to use their clout to get anyone children for adoption.
According to the international law, only infants can be adopted -- not grown up children.
Islam encourages men to marry needy women. A Muslim man can have four wives at a time. Unfortunately, Islam is abused and used as a cover by many of us for our wicked deeds.
Only God knows the intentions of the human beings -- prima facie 'adoption' and 'marriage' seem to be two great covers for human trafficking!