Ana and Elene connected online, but when they met in person, they discovered a dark secret

ABC NEWS (Australia)

When two girls connected online, they realised they were among tens of thousands of children in Georgia, a former Soviet republic on the Black Sea, who were taken from their parents at birth and sold on a black market.

Transcript

00:00 Ana Panchalice and Elena D'Azezza look identical, but until recently they didn't even know each

00:07 other existed. They grew up in different families, in cities two hours apart.

00:15 The first emotion was that we were looking in the mirror.

00:20 After connecting on social media, they both confronted their parents, who confirmed they

00:25 were adopted. They believe they're twin sisters who were separated at birth.

00:32 We're the same weight, same height, we have the same eye shape, and we look like each

00:39 other so much. Also, before Ana made the plastic surgery on her nose, she was exactly like

00:46 me. That's why we think we're the sisters, especially twins.

00:54 They then found a Facebook page that was reuniting adopted children with their biological parents.

01:00 That's when they realised they were likely victims of a child trafficking scandal which

01:05 spanned half a century.

01:08 We found out that it was systemic and we found out that there are more than 100,000 children

01:14 stolen in Georgia's hospitals.

01:17 Ana's adopted mother confirmed she paid US$3,500 for her in 2005. Back then, that was enough

01:24 to buy a small apartment in Georgia.

01:29 The scandal wasn't just happening in Tbilisi, it was all over the country. We're heading

01:35 two hours east of the capital now to meet a mother who was told that her twin boys died.

01:44 Serena Otarashvili delivered twin boys in 1978. She thought she took their bodies home

01:50 in a suitcase. They buried it and never looked inside. More than four decades later, her

01:57 daughters stumbled across the same Facebook page as Ana and Elale.

02:04 We dug up the grave and there was absolutely nothing in it except these tiny sticks.

02:11 The family says police told them there were no human remains inside.

02:18 I was shocked. They stole my children from me. I could not even imagine a doctor could

02:24 steal a child and sell it and tell the mother the child has died. I wanted to find my children

02:30 because I don't want them to think they were abandoned by their mother.

02:39 Local journalist Tumuna Mutsuretse exposed the story after discovering in 2016 that she

02:45 had two birth certificates. She later found out she too had been adopted.

02:51 We believe that in this crime organisation there were people involved from the taxi driver

02:57 to people from government.

03:00 She set up the Facebook page which has reunited 700 families. To investigate the scheme, she

03:06 teamed with human rights lawyer Leah Mushalaria. They believe doctors, nurses, politicians

03:12 and taxi drivers were all behind it, each getting paid for selling the children.

03:17 It was pretty clear that it was a kind of well-structured illegal business in this country.

03:24 Leah is bringing civil cases to Georgian courts to try and change laws to make it easier for

03:32 adopted children to find their biological parents. The Georgian government didn't respond

03:38 to the ABC's questions.

03:41 Ana and Elene want to find their biological parents.

03:45 We want to know who are we, who are our parents, are we like our mother or father?

03:52 They're taking a test to confirm they share DNA.

03:55 Are you nervous?

03:58 We are so nervous but I think we're 100% the twin sisters.

04:05 I know we have the feeling that we know each other for all our lives.

04:11 For now, they're just catching up on lost time.

04:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]

04:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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