Telegram brokers sell Iranian infants for roughly $1,100

A woman who identifies herself as a charity director is marketing a newborn for 3 billion rials, approximately $1,100. The offer includes ultrasound scans, a birth certificate, and a national ID, with payment due after the physical handover. Similar advertisements circulate on Iranian social media, specifically Telegram, where brokers use the language of adoption to solicit fees running into billions of rials. An investigation by RFE/RL Radio Farda reviewed these channels and interviewed activists, nurses, and the brokers themselves to document the trade.

A nurse familiar with these transactions described 3 billion rials as a reasonable price for a baby. One Telegram channel, which raises money for vulnerable women, posted an appeal for a pregnant woman in her eighth month who had been evicted from her home. The appeal quickly shifted into a sales pitch, offering the child for 1.5 billion rials, about $550, plus hospital costs. The channel administrator, known as The Doctor, stated she prefers placing abandoned newborns with private families rather than with the State Welfare Organization, known as Behzisti. She told Radio Farda that buyers could select the sex of an infant under 10 days old and claim the parents had no history of addiction.

The Doctor claimed that birth certificates and national IDs could be arranged to list buyers as the legal parents. She described the process as confidential, leaving no trace of the purchaser. Radio Farda could not independently verify these claims. The transaction begins with buyers submitting identity documents to open a file, a step that costs 200 million rials, or about $75. In a separate exchange, the administrator asked for 3 billion rials for a baby boy, labeling the sum a gift to cover legal steps and support for the birth family. Her explanation of where the babies originated shifted during the conversation, ranging from hospital abandonments to children from families unable to afford their care.

In a separate case from 2021, a maternity ward nurse described brokering a transfer of a baby girl to an Iranian family in the United States. The birth mother, who already had four children, wanted to end her fifth pregnancy due to poverty. Instead, the prospective family paid for medical visits and part of her living costs. She agreed to hand over the child for 700 million rials, roughly $2,560 in 2021. Medical records were registered under the adoptive mother's name, and the baby was discharged from the hospital under that name. The two women never met, and the infant traveled to the United States about a month after birth. The nurse noted that some families use makeup and staged photos to simulate the pregnancy, avoiding the standard guardianship route through diplomatic missions.

Another broker, referred to as Miss Doctor, advertised a 3-day-old girl and a 7-day-old boy. She said she welcomes placements with Iranians abroad but requires someone inside Iran to handle paperwork. She asks for identity documents and upfront payments and suggests timing births to match buyer visits. She also offers twins, charging an extra 300 million rials, or about $110, on top of the 100 million rials base file fee. She stated the babies come from unwanted pregnancies in families without the means to raise them.

A nurse at a state hospital said her facility transfers at least two newborns a month to Behzisti, often because mothers are addicted to drugs or families cannot provide care. Iranian authorities have long acknowledged the issue. In January 2022, a senior Behzisti official said baby sales were rising and sometimes arranged before birth. The following month, the head of Tehran's cyberpolice announced the arrest of a group that had offered babies online for 1.2 billion rials. More than four years later, similar offers continue to circulate on Telegram.