Two hospital officials in Guangdong Province in South China have been sentenced to one year in prison for forging birth certificates for trafficked children for a profit, according to a Monday report by Beijing-based The Mirror.
Liang Shaoquan, the director of Tieyong Township Hospital's obstetrics and gynecology department, got nurses to forge birth records and other documents, had the office director stamp them, then issued fake birth certificates to the "parents" of these trafficked children. He sold these for 3,000 yuan ($456) each.
The couples who had the trafficked children could then use the fake documents to get a hukou, China's household registration, for the children.
In one year, Liang issued five fake birth certificates.
After a China Central Television (CCTV) undercover investigation exposed what was going on in Nov. 2014 and Jan. 2015, the case gained wide attention. This led to a 10-month campaign to crack down on fake birth certificates in Guangdong.
However, fake birth certificates are still sold online, making it easy for people to buy trafficked babies or have more than the permitted number of babies because it is easy to evade government fees that come with getting them a hukou.
On Oct. 31, 2014, Sun Haiyang, the father of an abducted child and anti-child trafficking volunteer, posted on his Sina Weibo account that more than 10 children with unclear origins suddenly showed up in a village. He also said that he planned to rescue them.
The families in Tongfang Township, Changting County in Fujian Province, openly admitted to Sun that they purchased children and spent around 50,000 yuan to register the child. One women even boasted that she only paid 20,000 yuan to get her trafficked child a hukou.
CCTV exposed the case, resulting in police rescuing five trafficked children.
"One family bought the certificate for 1,000 yuan from Guangdong," said Liu Huisheng, a police officer with Changting County public security department. The birth certificate came from Tieyong Hospital, signed by Liang.
Birth certificates are essential for babies to obtain a hukou, and later on, to enrol in schools.
"To get a hukou for their newborns, parents should register the baby at a local police station with its birth certificate, and then police keep a copy of the certificate as a proof," said one police officer to The Mirror.
Trafficked babies who are given a hukou get a new identity, making it next to impossible for police to reunite them with their biological parents, said the officer.
"There will be less people buying trafficked children if they cannot get a hukou for them," said Zaizai, an anti-trafficking expert.