Little mercy for child abductors and buyers

Although authorities have labeled it speculation, the rumor over the amendment to the Criminal Law to ensure that everyone guilty of abducting children faces punishment up to the death penalty is still being widely reposted on social networks.

The call for the death penalty for a crime has seldom been so widely supported as that against kidnappers. Perhaps this is because of the family planning policy which allows most couples to have only one child despite the changes initiated last year. For families that can legally have only one child, losing their offspring could be disastrous. In some cases, mothers have lost their mental balance and couples have separated.

But in contrast to the severity of the problem, the percentage of child kidnapping cases solved has remained low. According to the National Working Committee on Children and Women, of the more than 18,000 abduction cases involving children and women, only 4,000, or 22 percent, were solved. Worse, even if a case is solved and the suspect arrested, in most cases abducted children are not reunited with their families because they are sold to people hundreds, even thousands, of kilometers away, mostly in villages, through criminal networks. The arrest of one kidnapper doesn't necessarily lead to the busting of an entire gang.