A Bulgarian newspaper has charged that Greeks have been offering pregnant Bulgarian women $2,000 in exchange for their babies.

The newspaper Trud alleges that within one month, two women sold their children to Greek “fathers” who came to the maternity hospital in the town of Veliko Tirnovo to see “their” newborn children. As they declared paternity, their names were registered as the fathers of the babies, which were then taken out of the country legally.

“Last week a newborn... was taken to Thessaloniki in this manner. It is actually the child of a gypsy family,” said the newspaper, alleging that this is common practice among large families, usually gypsies, as a way of avoiding the difficult and time-consuming bureaucracy foreigners encountered when seeking legal adoption.