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Owen Bennett Jones introduces a special essay by Katya Adler, on a chilling Spanish scandal. There are claims that since the 1930s, thousands of babies born in the country have been stolen and given away - or even sold - to new families.

It's not the only scandal of its kind, of course. In Australia, they call them the "stolen generations"; there, the babies were Aboriginal children taken from their families and handed to state run homes or foster families. It carried on for about a century up until the 1970s. And the idea of taking children for whatever reason – religion – welfare – eugenics – politics - has not been restricted to colonial or even post-colonial contexts.

Katya Adler has been working for months on the story of the stolen children of Spain. She was told that for years, newborn babies were taken from parents considered "undesirable" and handed over to couples thought more godly or respectable. The practice began under General Franco, on political grounds, but continued after his death and seemed to morph into a commercial approach. And it seems it happened on a very large scale...