Working together to stop orphanage trafficking and the exploitation of children
02.04.2019
It’s hard to believe there are people in the world who deliberately recruit children into orphanages in order to make money. Yet running an orphanage can be a lucrative trade. Vulnerable ‘orphans’ attract funding, donations and international volunteers.
This phenomenon, commonly referred to as ‘orphanage trafficking’ means that children are deprived of their family and exploited for profit. Some are also sexually abused or forced into labour or begging. Others are sold on for illegal adoption or servitude. Some are even used for their organs – or simply disappear.
It comes as a shock to most people that around 80 percent of the more the estimated 5.4 million children in orphanages are not orphans and have at least one living parent. Most are there for reasons such as poverty, displacement, disability, or to receive an education. And some children are there because they have been trafficked.
This blog was originally published on the Thomson Reuters Foundation news website.
It’s hard to believe there are people in the world who deliberately recruit children into orphanages in order to make money. Yet running an orphanage can be a lucrative trade.
-Chloe Setter, Lumos Senior Advisor, Anti-Trafficking, Modern Slavery & Voluntourism
Author: Chloe Setter, Lumos Senior Advisor, Anti-Trafficking, Modern Slavery & Voluntourism
