00:04
Children on their way to school-never very safe, but this time the danger isn't caused by heavy traffic. Since the mid-Nineties, around 500 children and teenagers have gone missing in the small Balkan country of Albania. That is an average of one boy or girl vanishing every week. Not surprising then that parents are reluctant to let their offspring go out alone.

00:31
The school warden keeps the gates locked, and records watches carefully over his charges, keeping a record of who enters and exits the compound.

00:38
Football, and even classroom lessons must take place behind iron bars.  

00:47

Just as for the rest of Albania, this school warden prevents any strangers from getting inside the school compound.  His job is so important that he is not allowed to leave the gate unattended at any time.

00:57
OT
The danger of abduction is always there. That's why parents should never leave their child with a stranger. No one can come to me and claim they're a cousin and they are there pick the child up-if the child doesn't recognize him I don't let him in and I don't let the child go with him. I always ask, ‘Who's that?' If the child tells me, ‘it's my cousin', then it's alright. If the child doesn't know the visitor, I won't let them go.

In the countryside the situation is even worse. ‘This was my son's daily path to school.' Hafus Gastari tells us. His son went missing eleven years ago. ‘He used to walk around this hill, his school was right behind it.'

01:40
The Gastaris live in this house underneath Castle Petrela. Like them, four other families lost their children in the same week.

01:48
OT Havie Gaztari, sister of a missing child

Before my brother disappeared, an Italian company was here supposedly looking for oil. We didn't know those people and after a week, it happened. My brother just disappeared one day after school, and all his books with him.

02.00 OT (Mann)
Did the company have equipment?

02:05 OT  

Yes, they had all sorts of measuring device with them and used to park the car in front of the garden, but after my brother had vanished, they too were gone.

02:16
So many people went missing in Albania that a private TV channel has made the search of missing persons its main evening programme. ‘Ku je?', ‘Where are you?' is on every day from Monday to Friday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm. For the past two years, presenter Aida Shtino and her team have done nothing but search for missing persons.  Now another channel is launching a similar programme.

02:47 OT Aida Shtino, Presenter
Since we started the programme, we've come across 600 cases of missing persons. About 30% of the missing are children who have been abducted in mysterious circumstances. According to our statistics and research, the majority of missing children fell into the hands of people traffickers, though some were adopted illegally, and others were in all likelihood victims of organ trafficking.

03:21
Tirana. Nobody knows exactly how many people live in the city, or, in fact, in Albania as a whole - there hasn't been a population census since the fall of the Soviet Union. Officials estimate the figure to be around 3 million, but with birth registers incomplete it is all too possible to disappear without trace.

03:36
OT Iva Zajmi, minister of the interior and coordinator of the fight against people trafficking

The largest group targeted by people traffickers are women, who are forced into prostitution, and their children. They're abducted to become slaves, part of organised crime, victims of the sex trade, or, in the most tragic cases, subject to organ extraction.

03:57
18th century icons and orthodox churches have made the East Albanian town of Korca near the Greek border famous. So has organised child trafficking. Local journalist Albana Cashiri has been looking into this problem for the past three years.

04:17
OT
Albana Cashiri, Journalist
Stories about the traffic of babies for illegal adoptions between Korca and Greece have made for sensational news. Its shock effect wasn't limited to the local community; people all over Albania were horrified. We also suspect the existence of a Europe-wide organ traffic targeting teenage victims.

04:38
The journalist is reluctant to reveal any more. She feels threatened.

04:48

The head of Korca's police, Thoma Zisi, currently has 35 unsolved cases of missing children on his desk.

04:58
OT Thoma Zisi, Head of Korca Police
Since founding this office, we've managed to arrest 62 criminals on charges of people trafficking.

05:11
Walking through Korca's slums, it quickly becomes obvious why it has proved so easy to abduct children. It is clear that officials have absolutely no idea how many people live in this area nor how many births there are. Mothers could easily sell their newborn and criminals would have no problem abducting a child. People here are furious at the government.  A pre-election promise to rehouse them in flats has not yet been carried out, and, as the present administration was never democratically elected it seems unlikely it ever will be. With no flats, these children are left to roam free, spending most of their time on the streets.

05:54
Nasmir Greka, one of the worst people dealers, is housed in Tirana prison. He is the head of the criminal group that sold newborn babies and children for illegal adoption in Jannica, in northern Greece.

06:09 OT Nazmir Greka, convicted people trafficker
I was sentenced to twenty years in jail even though I'm innocent. We made maybe 20, 30 deals at the most.

06:19 OT (Mann)
When were you convicted?

06:21 OT Greka
It was in 2004.

06:30
The main witness against Nazmir Greka was Donika Greka,  With Nazmir's help, Donika sold her baby to a Dr Foti in Greece.  However, she never received the money.

06:45 OT Donika Greka, Witness
I stayed for in Dr Foti's clinic for a month because I had to have an operation. I had a Caesarian Section. Once I came round from the anesthetic, they told me that the child had died.

06:56 OT (Mann)
And so, when you first talked to Nasmir, how much did he say he would pay you for the child?

07:07 OT
I don't know anymore. One million Leks, or maybe 5. I can't remember anymore.

07:13

A million Leks is roughly equivalent to €1000. Donika Greka escaped charges because it was her testimony that enabled an entire operation to be disbanded.

07:24
The few tracks left by abducted children all lead here, to the north of Greece and the town of Jannica. The city has a bad reputation. It is here that Dr Foti, whose name keeps coming up in investigations was able to carry out his operations. He died two weeks before our arrival in the town but we found his clinic in a narrow alley - a small inconspicuous building that he sold just before his death. Everyone here knows the doctor but no one is willing to talk to us.

07.50
(Frau) Go away with your camera. I can't talk, she says
(Mann) What do you want? this man wants to know.

Only this will speak to us, ‘they're all corrupt, they all live from drugdealing and people trafficking.'

08:10
The courts were never able to stop Dr Foti.

08.17
The head of Jannica police also refused to speak in front of the camera, but he told us in a confidential interview that the justice system was responsible for everything and that without it's support the police could never have launched an enquiry against Dr Foti.

08:33
This woman lives in the vicinity of Tirana. For years now she's been mourning her daughter, who was seventeen when she disappeared. This time the daughter was into a marriage which proved a sham, instead, she was probably forced into prostitution.

08:52 OT Zana Kuqi, Sister of the missing girl
A week after they first met, the so-called fiancé showed up and said he wanted to take her with him straight away because his parents wanted to help with the wedding outfit. He took her away and that was it, she never came back.

09:12
Another place, another story: Elbasan, somewhere between Tirana and Korca. This lively midday market seems anything but dangerous, yet even here abductions have been reported. This boy tells us the story of his brother's abduction two years ago. He and his brother just wanted to earn some pocket money at the market.

09:32
OT Blerim Carja, Brother of a missing boy
We used to collect plastic bags and sell them to the stall holders to earn some cash.

09:44
OT (Mann)
What time did last see your brother?

OT
Noon, half past one maybe. All of a sudden he was gone. I looked for him everywhere but he wasn't at home or anywhere to be found. I've haven't seen him since.

(Pause)

10:03
We always used to meet each other at the same time, and that time was the last.

10:14
Blerim's little nine-year old brother disappeared on the 7th of July 2004. Ever since that day, the heavily traumatised boy returns to the market, hoping to some trace of his little brother Arturi.  He still hopes that they might meet again.