Family swaps toddler for colour TV

A poverty stricken Albanian couple has admitted handing over one of their five children to a gang of human traffickers in return for a colour television, Italian media reports said on Tuesday.

The gang subsequently sold the three-year-old boy to an elderly Italian couple for 5000 euro ($8520), according to the Italian news agency ANSA citing judicial sources.
According to the report, the boy's father, knowing that the traffickers were dangerous, agreed to the deal.

The gang was broken up by Italian police several months ago and when the arrest of leader Besim Metani was announced, the boy's mother came forward, the report said.

Italian and Albanian investigators finally traced the boy to the town of Sersale in the south of the country, where he had been living since 1999 with Angelo Borelli, 69, and his wife Iole Rodio, 57, under the name of Michele.

The child, now aged 7, was put into the care of Italian social services until the legal authorities make a decision on whether to send him back to Albania.

The trafficking gang is alleged to have brought about 60 children into Italy by similar means.
Police spokesman Pierpaolo Maraffa said his officers were still trying to trace around 30 children in and around the town of Pescara on the Adriatic coast facing Albania.