Australian archbishop seeks help finding abducted Thai orphans

(Feb.23,2010): In Australia, Archbishop Barry Hickey of Perth has appealed to the country’s Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, for urgent help in finding 50 Thai orphans. Aged between 10 and 14, the orphans are feared to have been abducted for sex trafficking.
Archbishop Hickey, vice president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, wrote to Smith this month, requesting him to investigate the alleged kidnapping of Dec. 28 on the Thai-Myanmar border. The prelate said while Thai authorities have been informed of the missing children, they have not yet located them. The archbishop told The West Australian newspaper on Monday (Feb. 22) that "being ethnic Karen children, not Thai, perhaps they are not very important in the scale of things for the authorities, and somebody has seen a lucrative source of children there."
The feared abduction also appears to have been carefully orchestrated, said Adelia Bernard of Perth, who has worked for more than 30 years for the Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees, established by the Thai bishops' conference in 1978. The highly organized nature of the kidnapping suggests it was orchestrated by a large organization, she said, adding that such organizations are not afraid to harm or kill people, as the children are worth millions of dollars to them.