#ChildTrafficking

Illegal Adoption

Posted on December 14, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

On hearing that Guatemala had put a moratorium on inter-country adoptions – meaning they would not allow any until further notice – a lady, who is herself a mother of adopted children, asked me in shock how the country could do such a thing: how could they leave all those poor children stuck there when there were families eager to adopt them? Like voluntourism, inter-country (or international) adoption is something that people tend to get involved in with the very best of intentions, but that has an unexpectedly large capacity for causing grief and trauma, and for damaging children.

Much like voluntourism, inter-country adoption started out as something done by a few people with a genuine wish to give a better life to children with no prospects, then turning into something that became popular, leading to the opening up of a market.

Additional Risks of Institutionalisation

Posted on November 30, 2018September 30, 2019 by Florence

In previous blogs, we have looked at children being pulled out of their families to fill ‘orphanages’ to cater to the voluntourism industry and the orphanage industry (HERE and HERE). We have looked at ways children are exploited both knowingly and unknowingly in institutions (HERE). And we have looked at how their growth, health and brain development, as well as their chances of successful independent adult lives is put on the line by not having their essential basic needs met for many years (HERE). That seems like too much to handle already, and it really is.

Unfortunately, there is more. When children live in institutions, they are much, much more vulnerable to abuse than children are in general.

How Child Trafficking Is Related to ‘Orphanages’

Posted on October 16, 2018November 30, 2018 by Florence

Today, on 16 October 2018, NGOs across the world are joining forces in a global trafficking campaign to raise awareness of the scale, the roots and the consequences of human and child trafficking. Unfortunately, child trafficking is a subject that is extremely relevant to anyone involved in institutional residential childcare. So, in this blog, I will describe some of the ways in which the two are connected.