Garbageman Shocked To Find Newborn Baby Alive In Iran Dumpster

A newborn baby was videotaped being rescued by a garbageman in Iran on Monday, with the clip going viral online and bringing into question the escalating child abandonment cases within the country.

The video shows an unnamed waste worker in Tehran hearing muffled crying noises from inside a plastic bag in a dumpster. Lifting the sack out of the garbage revealed a crying and blood-soaked baby with the umbilical cord of the child still attached to the body, according to the New York Post.

After taking out the baby from the plastic bag for their safety, the man then called the local authorities to report the abandoned infant. They cleaned up the child after arriving and took it to the nearby Amir al Momenin Hospital, where the child is now in stable condition.

The viral video highlights the large amount of child abandonment cases that are currently happening in Iran, with the country’s Ministry of Interior claiming that over 1,000 babies are abandoned each year in the country, though local activists contend that the number is higher, Iran News Update reported.

“The dark reality is that these babies’ parents, living in poverty, are so desperate that they are left with no option other than abandoning their newborns, hoping a children welfare society takes them in or they are adopted by families able to provide care for them,” the Iranian Resistance Movement said in a statement in 2018.

Iran is also going through a food price crisis on its own after the government removed state subsidies on flour-based food, causing an overall spike in the prices of multiple foods and basic goods in the country. Many have taken to the streets to protest the price hike, especially in the poorer regions of the country, CNN reported.

The rise in prices is attributed to the war in Ukraine, where Iran gets over 40% of its wheat supplies. The discounting of Russian oil has also caused a decrease in sales of Iranian oil, with primary importer China leaning towards the cheaper Russian oil.

“In addition to higher bread prices, discounted Russian oil and gas exports to China have also made it harder for Iran to sell hydrocarbons to its primary trading partner,” think-tank fellow Zep Kalb said.