Indonesia has placed restrictions on children leaving the country, fearing that child-trafficking gangs will exploit the chaos of the tsunami disaster.
Police commanders have been ordered to be on the lookout for trafficking and have posted special guards in refugee camps.
UNICEF and other child welfare groups have warned that the gangs - who are well-established in Indonesia - may well be whisking orphaned children into trafficking networks, selling them into forced labor or even sexual slavery in wealthier neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.
UNICEF spokesman Mr John Budd, based in Banda Aceh, yesterday said the organisation had two confirmed reports of attempted child trafficking, but he did not immediately provide any further details.
Such trafficking, if true, would vastly deepen the suffering of children already struck hard by the massive earthquake and tsunami. Indonesia estimates that 35,000 children on Sumatra island's Aceh province lost one or both parents to the disaster.
Fueling the suspicions, many Indonesians have received mobile phone text messages this week inviting them to adopt orphans from Aceh. The police are investigating the messages.
It's not clear whether such messages are pranks, real adoption offers or linked in some way to trafficking networks.
Child welfare experts have warned the messages could be a sign that children are being removed from the province, reducing their chances of being reunited with relatives or surviving parents who may be searching for them.
Fears for missing Swedish boy (12)
Fears of child traffickers have increased following the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of a 12-year-old Swedish boy missing in Thailand.
A police investigation has been launched into the disappearance of Swedish boy Kristian Walker.
Thai police have released an identikit of a Western-looking man who may have taken the boy in the confusion following the disaster
The boy was staying at the Ayara Villas hotel on Khao Lak beach with his mother, brother and sister when the killer waves slammed into luxury hotels and fishing villages dotting the coastline north of Phuket island.