In Thessaloniki, police officers intervened after hearing the cries of an 11-month-old baby left unattended on a balcony. During a routine patrol in the city center, they spotted the infant in a stroller on the fourth-floor balcony of a residential building. Inside the apartment, the parents and their three other children were asleep, with the balcony doors closed.

The parents, identified as Bulgarians aged 36 and 35, told the police they had placed the baby outside to cool off, according to Greek media reports and thesstoday.gr. A police report was filed against the couple for endangering a child’s safety, and social services were notified to assess the family’s living conditions.

In a related development from last year, another Bulgarian national was arrested in Greece for involvement in illegal child trafficking. According to the authorities, the man was part of a criminal network responsible for at least six cases of unlawful adoptions. The scheme involved recruiting financially vulnerable pregnant women in Bulgaria who agreed to give up their children for adoption in Greece in exchange for money.

Investigations revealed that the arrested individual received over 10,000 euros as a mediator between birth mothers and a network of doctors and lawyers who facilitated the legal procedures for the adoptions. Current prices for such transactions have reportedly risen to over 30,000 euros per child, according to anti-human trafficking investigators. The suspect has been handed over to the Greek prosecutor’s office, where the evidence against him is considered conclusive.