Addressing Orphanage Trafficking: Challenges and Solutions for Global Child Protection

What is it about?

This viewpoint study explores the intersections of orphanage trafficking, child trafficking, and the sale and sexual exploitation of children within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals. It discusses the special protection needs of children in institutional care and how orphanage tourism and foreign funding undermine national care reform efforts. The study highlights the contextual challenges posed by the commodification of child care and the role of profit motives in institutional settings. It emphasizes the need for international cooperation between host and sending countries to implement legislative and policy measures to combat orphanage trafficking. The discussion underscores the importance of redirecting resources towards family and community-based services to prevent child institutionalization. The Sustainable Development Goals are presented as a platform for international collaboration to achieve lasting change for vulnerable children.

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Photo by Etienne Boulanger on Unsplash

Photo by Etienne Boulanger on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study highlights the critical intersections between orphanage trafficking, child trafficking, and modern slavery, emphasizing the impact on children residing in institutional care settings. The study is significant as it underscores the challenges these intersections pose, particularly in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the need for international cooperation to address the causal factors that enable orphanage trafficking. It also stresses the importance of reforming care systems to prevent child exploitation. Key Takeaways: 1. This perspective study highlights how institutional care settings increase the risk of sale, sexual exploitation, and trafficking of children, with findings indicating significant vulnerabilities due to violence, neglect, and commodification within these institutions. 2. The study discusses how orphanage tourism and foreign funding sustain and incentivize the institutional model of care, undermining national care reform efforts and contributing to the perpetuation of orphanage trafficking rings. 3. Recommendations are made for international cooperation between host and sending countries to address both internal and external factors driving orphanage trafficking, suggesting measures such as legislative changes, resource redirection towards family-based services, and alignment with Sustainable Development Goals.