Neelam was five years old when she was given to the orphanage, having been promised to be given a better childhood with all facilities and needs. Her parents were unable to provide her with proper food and care, so they trusted the organisation and gave her to them.
Everything was fine until one day when Sophia, a lady who works against orphan trafficking with another organisation happened to find out that she was being used for forced labour and exploited on a regular basis.
She was eventually rescued and was sent back to home and provided with good facilities and education by the Government.
Like Neelam, there are over 40 million children that have been or are being registered as orphans with fake IDs and are exposed to a variety of slavery and exploitation in many different countries. Many orphanages are getting attention and receiving a whole lot of money, particularly from developed countries, but they aren’t using it to protect and provide for the children.
This phenomenon is called Orphan trafficking or modern-day slavery, in other words. It is discovered that it has strong links to Voluntourism (a form of tourism that includes volunteering for various causes) and foreign aid donor countries like Australia.
Many children are being bought from their parents to fill the orphanages, and the orphanages, in turn, attract overseas donors, turning these children into papered orphans with fake IDs and names.
India has improvised its processes to adopt an ‘orphan child’ from an orphanage. Many other countries, including Sri Lanka, Thailand, The Philippines, and China, are now on the approved list for orphan adoption in Australia. Although there remains a lot of corruption in most countries involving children’s protection agencies, countries like Australia are taking necessary preventive measures to help these countries improve their adoption processes. The Australian Government is now considering a new adoption deal with Kenya, to help protect truly orphaned children from precarious circumstances and to eradicate orphan trafficking in the country.
However, there is still a long way to go and many steps to take to reach the stage of adopting children who are appropriately cleared for adoption.
The whole world was shocked by the death of 34 Vietnamese nationals in the back of a truck in the UK. These Vietnamese victims of modern slavery created a sensation that focused a spotlight on child trafficking from Asian countries like Vietnam. Some of them were kidnapped, whereas the others were picked up from the streets.
With political support, careful observation and planning, we can protect children and help them to be with their families and not be taken by orphanages, which change their identities for financial gain. World Governments need to implement a lot of changes in adoption policies and also make the prosecutions against offenders more strict.
I would like to particularly highlight the Thomas Reuters Foundation, founded by J.K. Rowling, author of the famous Harry Potter series of novels, which reports that over 80% of children who are claimed to be orphans are not actually orphans. They urge strong global action to eradicate Orphan Trafficking.
Children need their families’ love and care, not institutions or streets for survival. Together we can make the lives of these children better and get what they truly deserve.
Sources
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/adoptions-from-india-to-resume-despite-trafficking-concerns
https://www.e-ir.info/2018/07/13/orphanage-trafficking-and-the-modern-slavery-act-in-australia/
https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51176958
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-slavery-conference-orphan-trafficking-idUSKCN1NJ2KI
Written by: Chandini Balla
