what the hell is happening? who is that girl? georgia is coming to terms with a black market adoption scandal spanning decades. it's believed tens of thousands of babies were stolen, some as recently as the mid 2000s. and while some are connecting with lost family... i texted herfirst, "i have been looking for you".

..many are still fighting forjustice. i woke up one day, i had the feeling that i have to get a piercing. the video ended up on tiktok and a week later, my friend messaged me, saying there's a girl who is looking for you. she looks exactly like you. what the hell is happening? who is that girl? i said, "can you show me her on facebook?"

i texted herfirst, "i have been looking for you".

and she said, "me too". i'm coming up from the escalator and it's like my heart is like — it was pumping so much blood! i was in shock. am i looking in the mirror? am i in the train? 0r — could someone slap me in the face? exact same person, exact same faces, exact same voice, exact same thoughts. i'm like, "i need to hug you". she doesn't like hugs but she did hug me. then, we took a couple of pictures and i posted it on facebook. then, my mother's friend texted me. "did you find your sister?" i'm like, "who? "what. . .what sister?"

amy and ano were not the only ones making strange discoveries about their past. so, this is my one birth certificate and it's written that i was born on tenth august. and this is new one, which i took in 2017, and it's written that i was born in tenth october in 1984.

unfortunately, none of them are the real dates and i don't exactly know when i was born. i am tamuna, i am journalist, and i am the first one who started talking about baby—selling scandal in georgia. in 2016, my mother died unexpectedly. she was only 64 years old. one month later, i wasjust looking in her documents, just organising some stuff, and ifound my birth certificate where it was written my name, my surname, my parents�* names and surnames. but it was said that my birth date was not the day which i knew. tamuna went to the archives to find a document that in georgia every woman receives after giving birth, but no document existed.

her mother hadn't given birth to her at all, and it meant she must be adopted. when her family refused to talk about it, tamuna set about finding answers. i think that this is a mission which was made for me, or maybe i was made for this mission. she wanted to find out if there were others in the same position as her. so she and a friend set up a facebook group called i am searching. everything exploded, message after message after message. mothers looking for children, children looking for the mothers. one of those messages was, like, oh, my...

she suspects her mother was involved in other cases of baby—trafficking, working with corrupt doctors and criminals. nato�*s mother said not everyone was involved, but many people were.

black market adoptions and child—trafficking were rife in georgia between the 1970s until the mid—2000s, when adoption became more regulated. lia believes the practice

thrived because of a culture of shame around adoption, which pushed it underground and a lack of questioning authority under communism. later, after georgia gained independence from the soviet union, a period of turbulence followed which allowed criminals to cash in on a more organised system of illegal adoption.

it's now known that no hospital cemeteries ever existed and that mothers were lied to. it's believed tens of thousands of babies were stolen, but with no exact records, the true number is unknown. even today, no—one knows for sure exactly how connected these criminal gangs were or to what heights the corruption reached. tamuna believes the very top. international child—trafficking in georgia has been investigated by authorities twice since 2003. some people did face jail time, but they were just the tip of the iceberg. there are reports that some

of those who were accused of being involved are still working in hospitals today. with tamuna's facebook group gaining momentum, in september 2022, the georgian government launched a new formal investigation into child—trafficking. led by the ministry of internal affairs, it set out to investigate hospital employees and gather evidence. amy and ano now have serious questions to ask their families. my mother. god! and i'm like, "what i'm going to say to her?" and for the first time, i hear my mother cry.

and i'm like, "0k, you're making me cry, "so i can't... no, i can't talk to you." she said that..."|�*m sorry." and i'm saying, "you're sorry for what?" "i didn't know that you had a twin sister." my whole life is a lie. that was the first feeling i had. the twins posted their story on the group. within a few days, they received a message from a woman called anna. she said, "i also have twin sisters "and i am looking for them." anna's mother had been told her twins had died in 2002, but now she had doubts. then we decided to get a dna test, and it turns out is our biological mother.

as you see, there are almost 36,000 posts and comments in two months in our group. and you can also see the views of the group and there are more than five million views. i am searching now has over 230,000 members. i get messages every day with new leads. they are from all over georgia and even people based abroad. tamuna's research has found that the trafficking of babies was happening right across georgia. she's found multiple allegations against at least 20 hospitals, many in rural areas. tamuna is meeting a family in kvareli, a small town in the east of the country.

she wants to hear what happened to irina more than a0 years ago. a few days after giving birth, irina was told her twins had died. she was instructed by doctors to find something to bury them in. unable to access a plot for the children in a cemetery, the family buried the suitcase in their garden. it remained there for more than a0 years.

the family were so suspicious that they decided to dig up the suitcase.

more than a year after the investigation was launched, very little seems to have happened. with frustration building, tamuna has gathered women from the group to meet lia

and discuss legal action. meanwhile, the twins are grappling with whether to meet their biological mother in germany. this is my biggest moment in my life. i want answers to my questions. adopted children have that

feeling that everything, it's her fault. you know? it's our fault. it's their fault. no, it's not. and it's not but we felt like that. we all our life thinking about it, "oh, it's my fault." it's my fault. because i wasn't enough. and you don't... and you don't know why. i just want answers. i can't change the past. i can change my future.

0h! they cry 0h. during their chat, amy and ano�*s mother said that after giving birth, she was unconscious and it was only when she woke up that she was told her twins had died. i felt something like i've never felt.

i don't know what that's called, but, yeah, i'm shaking. ijust want to comfort her because i know what she's feeling.

amy and ano are among the few to have reconnected with family. elsewhere, irina and nino may have had a breakthrough in their search. they found someone who lives nearby who they think could be one of the twins. they are awaiting dna test results. nato often thinks about finding herfamily. lia's group legal battle continues to gather pace. they plan to begin legal action this year. meanwhile, tamuna continues to search for her biological family. she is due to meet the president of georgia

to lobby on behalf of all the victims. the saddest part of my story is that i have reunited hundreds of families and i cannot find my biological parents. but i will. i'm sure i will. i will find them. hello there. saturday brought quite a bit of sunshine to england and wales. a dry day for many, and a lovely end to the day here in north somerset. further north, though, for northern ireland and scotland, the day turned out to be quite windy and we did have a fair bit

of cloud coming in off the atlantic, associated with the jet stream pattern. well, thisjet stream pattern for sunday is going to be bringing a very mild air mass across the uk and we could well see some exceptional temperatures across northern areas of scotland through sunday afternoon, as we will see in just a moment. before we get there, though, the southerly wind at the moment is bringing occasional patches of drizzle to coast and hills for scotland and for northern ireland, although many areas will stay dry and have a dry start to the day on sunday. mild across the northwest. we've got the cooler air across england and wales. a few mist patches to start the day on sunday. quickly clearing, and then a lovely morning for most of you. into the afternoon, though, a cold front will bring a spell of rain to northern ireland and western scotland, and some very strong winds working into the hebrides and the north—west of the highlands. 60mph, maybe 70mph, gusts here, but on the other side of the mountains, helped on by the fern effect, we could see temperatures get boosted all the way up to maybe as high as 16 celsius — well above the average for this part of the world. and the uk all—timejanuary

temperature record stands at 18.3 celsius, so 16 wouldn't be that far away from that. although we don't see those dizzy heights across england and wales, it is going to be a mild day nationwide. now, looking at the weather picture into monday, we keep the mild air across england and wales, but further north, the air�*s getting colder across scotland and northern ireland. between the two, we have got a band of rain. it looks like being quite wet across this area, with 20mm to 40mm of rain. could see a few flakes of snow over the highest hills of the southern uplands. colder weather pushing back into scotland and northern ireland. i say colder, actually, temperatures are coming back closer to average. but across england and wales, still very mild. temperatures could reach 15 degrees in the warmest spots. heading into tuesday, that area of low pressure is working away. a ridge of high pressure follows in for a time from the west, so the cloud will thin and break and many of us will have a day where the weather will improve and get brighter with a bit more in the way of sunshine coming through. temperatures near average across northern areas, still on the mild side for east anglia and southeast england.

the rest of the week ahead, often quite wet and windy at times in the north, dry and bright largely in the south. bye for now.

live from washington, this is bbc news. the un agency for palestinian refugees is in crisis mode, as nine countries pull funding, after the body was forced to sack several employees over their alleged involvement in the october 7th attacks on israel. landmarks across the world light up purple

to commemorate holocaust memorial day, marking the 79th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz. and campaign groups take to the streets across kenya to protest against a surge in violence against women. hello, and welcome to the program. we begin with the crisis facing the un agency for palestinian refugees. several countries have paused funding for unwra, the latest to halt aid being germany, its second—largest donor. eight others, including the us and the uk, have suspended funding to the agency known as unrwa. this comes after the agency announced it sacked several staff members over allegations they were involved in the october 7th hamas attacks. the head of unrwa, philippe lazzarini, expressed shock at the suspension of funding, saying the decision to withhold those funds threatens the lives of people inside gaza

who depend on unrwa.