The investigation examines the role of three Italian agencies authorised by the Italian government and accredited in Armenia until 2022 - Anpas, Arcobaleno Onlus and Famiglia Insieme Onlus - in alleged cases of child trafficking linked to international adoptions from Armenia to Italy.
Since 2019, Armenian authorities have reportedly conducted a classified criminal investigation into twenty illegal adoptions. While the organisations themselves have not been formally charged, those accused include Anush Garsanyan and Razmik Abrahamyan.
The investigation uncovered evidence of a network operating between 2007 and 2019, revealing inconsistencies in records, opaque cooperation projects, unexplained fees charged to adoptive families, and graves of children declared dead that were later found not to exist. It also raised concerns over insufficient oversight by the Italian Commission for International Adoptions (CAI).
Through a series of images, the project gives a human face to stories that official documents and statistics alone cannot tell — including those of families who paid for children that records show were already dead.
Based on field reporting in Armenia, official documents, and dozens of interviews with families, experts and lawyers, the investigation raises uncomfortable questions about accountability in international adoption systems that remain, to this day, unanswered.
