Mother of stolen girl still waiting

An Indian mother whose child was kidnapped and illegally adopted in Australia has accused the girl's adoptive parents and officials here of blocking the now teenager from having contact with her and of making no effort to try to repatriate the girl, according to an article in smh.com.au.

The mother, Fatima, will travel to New Delhi on Tuesday to try to meet with officials and hold a media conference as part of a bid to be reunited with her daughter, Zabeen, who was kidnapped by professional child-stealers near the family home in the slums of Chennai in 1998.

The then two-year-old was sold to a corrupt adoption agency which forged records to make it appear she had been abandoned. She and another younger child were then fraudulently represented as siblings and adopted to a family in Queensland.

Indian police uncovered the scam in 2005 and arrested and jailed the child stealers who provided details of children that were stolen. Their information was matched with adoption agency records and photo identification that confirmed Zabeen's situation, prompting police to alert Australian authorities who said they would investigate.

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