Incredible moment Georgian twins are reunited with their birth mother, 22 years after they were stolen from hospital and sold on the black market to separate families: Identical girls met as teenagers after one saw the other in a TV talent show

This is the incredible moment a long-lost identical twin, separated at birth and sold on the black market, was reunited with their birth mother, all thanks to an investigation that exposed the shocking practice.

In heartwarming footage of their reunion, the twins – now in their early 20s – fell into the arms of their mother, who sobbed into their shoulders as the trio embraced for the first time since the young women were born.

Amy and Ano, born in 2002, were sold on the market after their mother fell into a coma. By the time she was told the devastating lie that her babies had died in childbirth, they had been sold to two different families.

But after recognizing each other in videos — one on a TV talent show when they were 12 and the other in a TikTok video in 2021 — the then-teenagers were finally reunited, largely due to an investigation to find lost families to connect with each other.

The study found that for more than 30 years, thousands of families in Georgia were told the devastating news that their babies had died at birth.

However, the reality was that the newborns were trafficked on the black market, meaning thousands of Georgians had no idea who their real families were.

One Georgian who found herself in this unimaginable situation was journalist Tamuna Museridze, who set up the Facebook group 'Vezdeb' in an attempt to find her own family.

The group has since amassed 230,000 members and, along with DNA testing websites, has helped blow open the shady adoption network and reunite families.

After finding incorrect details on her own birth certificate in 2021, Museridze founded the Facebook group and started looking for her real family.

Based on the number of people who have contacted her since, combined with the number of cases nationwide, Museridze estimates that tens of thousands of babies have been stolen from their biological parents.

Speaking with the BBC World ServiceShe said she believes the black market, which operated from the early 1970s to 2006, was “systemic.”

Two family members united by her efforts were Ano and Amy, the twins, who for almost twenty years had no idea they had been born together in 2002.

Amy told the British broadcaster that she had a sense of her twin brother at age 12, when friends told her they had seen a girl who looked just like her dancing on “Georgia's Got Talent.” She would later find out that this was Ano.

However, when she asked her family about it at the time, they dismissed it. “Everyone has a lookalike,” her mother told her.

But their story doesn't end there.

Seven years later, in November 2021, Amy posted a video of herself on the social media app TikTok, with blue hair getting her eyebrows pierced. It was Ano's time to see the resemblance, and she was stunned to see a girl who looked exactly like her.

Despite living 200 miles apart in Georgia, they were able to connect through social media.

They started talking on Facebook and eventually met in person.

Although their birth certificates stated that they were born at the same hospital, Kirtskhi Maternity, the documents stated that they were weeks apart.

But when they met in person, it became clear that they were identical twins.

'It was like looking in a mirror, exactly the same face, exactly the same voice. I am her and she is me,” Amy told BBC News.

The pair soon discovered that they also had some similarities. They both liked the same music, liked to dance and had the same haircut.

The similarities went beyond the superficial, however, as they also had the same genetic bone condition called dysplasia.

They told the BBC it felt like they were unraveling a mystery together.

“Every time I learned something new about Ano, things got weirder,” Amy said.

But amid the excitement of discovering each other, there was also anger.

Amy said it felt like her life had been a lie, while Ano said she was 'angry and angry' [her] family, but [she] I just wanted the hard conversations to be over so we could all move on.” “It's a crazy story,” Amy added, “but it's true.”

They decided to confront their families and eventually found out the truth.

The twins were adopted separately in 2002, a few weeks apart.

Unable to have children, Amy and Ano's mothers were told by friends that there were unwanted babies at the local hospital. If they paid the doctors, they could adopt one of these babies, take it home, and raise it as their own.

None of the adoptive families knew the girls were twins, they said, claiming they were unaware the practice was illegal.

At the time, Georgia was going through a period of turmoil, and the mothers said they believed the adoption process was legitimate because doctors were involved.

Museridze told the BBC that a baby cost a year's salary in Georgia at the time, and that some babies ended up in the US, Ukraine, Canada, Cyprus and Russia.

The twins shared their story on Museridze's Facebook group and received a reply from a woman in Germany saying they thought they could be related as her own mother had given birth to twins at the Kirtskhi Maternity Hospital in 2002.

DNA research confirmed this.

Finally, after more than twenty years, Amy and Ano were reunited with their birth mother, Aza, in an emotional moment captured by the BBC.

Aza explained to her daughters that after giving birth she fell ill and fell into a coma. When she woke up, hospital staff told her that her babies had died.

The mother said meeting her long-lost daughters gave her life new meaning, and they still keep in touch.

In 2006, Georgia changed its laws to tackle human trafficking, making illegal adoption more difficult, and in 2022 the government launched an investigation into historical child trafficking.

The BBC said it had approached Georgia's interior ministry for more information on individual cases, but was told specific details would not be released.