An Indonesian couple has allegedly sold their newborn baby for GBP 700 on WhatsApp to pay for their hospital bill.

The couple from the island of Lombok in the Indonesian province of West Nusa Tenggara allegedly sold their newborn baby for MYR 4,000 (GBP 728).

The woman, named in reports solely as Fithiani, 25, reportedly gave birth at the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital in the municipality of Temerloh, which is located in the state of Pahang, in Peninsular Malaysia.

She and her husband, named in reports solely as Bambang and said to be in his 20s, were under financial hardship due to not working, the COVID-19 pandemic and the flooding of their rented home in the small town of Karak, also in Pahang, last year.

As such, they were reportedly unable to pay the hospital bill following the birth.

The couple reportedly sold their baby to another couple, who allegedly found out about the first couple’s ‘offer’ via a WhatsApp group.

And now the second couple seems to have hit a bureaucratic brick wall, as they have been unable to register their ‘purchased’ baby as an adopted child, leaving them in limbo.

This is because the National Registration Department (NRD) requires that the birth mother be present at the time of the adoption paperwork, and the baby’s biological parents have reportedly gone AWOL, having moved out of their home in Karak and having been unreachable ever since the ‘sale’.

The baby’s adoptive mother, named in reports only as Hasnah, 33, was quoted in local media as saying: “We have done all that is required by the NRD, including vaccinations and efforts to trace the birth mother of the baby.

“But we are still at a dead end.”