Twenty pregnant girls were rescued by the police in South-East Nigeria, when they raided an Enugu hospital, where they were imprisoned by a group that sold their babies and had a network of similar “baby farms” in the country.

The hosiptal`s doctor, who is standing trial, allegedly lured the teens who happened to get pregnant without planning it by offering to perform abortion, world media report.

Instead, he imprisoned them in the hospital and held them there until they gave birth, after which he forced them to give the baby up for a humble compensation of 170 dollars.

He then sold the babied to buyers for the price from 2,500 to 3,800 dollars, the state agency against human trafficking claims. The doctor`s crimes were discovered when Nigerian police a woman to bought a baby that was born only a day before.

The state agency does not have statistics how many babies are “grown” in this way, but they assume the network is wide and le by highly organised criminal unions.

Apart from stealing the babies of already pregnant girls, the farm also accepted girls who were so poor that the volunteered to come to the hospital and sell a baby for money. The doctor or local youths would rape them and once they gave birth, they would sell the baby.

One of them described it:

- The moment I stepped in there, I was given an injection, I passed out and next thing I woke up and realised I had been raped – adding that she was kept in a room with 19 more girls, who were all raped. Two days later, the doctor raped her again.

The police said that when they raided the hospital, they found girls who were there for over three years. Apart from clinics, such farms can be disguised in objects which are formally shelters for the homeless, orphanages or fertility clinics.