UK tabloid the News of the World reported alleged child-selling transactions in Bulgaria in a May 23 2009 article on what the tabloid described as the "growing European baby trade".
 
"Buyers range from childless couples desperate for a baby to love, to paedophile rings," the article said.
 
"In countries such as Bulgaria, China and India, poverty is rife. Increasingly, children are being seen as a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. As demand now outstrips supply, in some countries women are getting pregnant to order and selling their unborn babies to any willing purchaser," according to the News of the World.
 
Baby trafficking was only made a crime in Bulgaria in 2004 and the maximum punishment is just two years in prison. "No surprise then, that when a child can be sold for thousands of pounds, the country has become infamous as a human supermarket," the tabloid said.
 
"Our reporter informed local authorities of both the cases we discovered in Bulgaria and they assured us they would investigate further."
 
Children's charity UNICEF says Eastern Europe has one of the biggest markets for child sex and domestic slaves. In 2006, 10 Bulgarians were sentenced to up to six years imprisonment for selling 23 babies to French families for about 4500 pounds each.
 
Police have also investigated hundreds of similar cases involving Bulgarian and Romanian babies being sold in neighbouring Greece and Italy, the News of the World said.
 
"Save the Children can be contacted at Savethechildren.org.uk or on 020 7012 6400 (or 00 44 20 7012 6400 outside the UK). UNICEF can be contacted at Unicef.org.uk. For Amnesty International, visit Amnesty.org.uk," the article said.