Project Description
This project researches how law enforcement, government and courts have responded to, and are responding to, orphanage trafficking. Orphanage trafficking is where children are transferred or recruited into orphanages for the purpose of exploitation and profit. As the first project of its kind in the world, it is assessing the legal, policy and procedural frameworks in both domestic and international law across three countries where orphanage trafficking continues to undermine domestic efforts to stem the overuse of institutionalisation of children: Nepal, Cambodia and Uganda. Research shows us that orphanages proliferate in times of disaster which makes the project particularly timely given the pandemic of COVID19. In Nepal, Uganda, and Cambodia, we expect to see a rise in orphanage trafficking as unscrupulous operators seek to take advantage of family desperation to keep children safe by offering a perceived safe haven of boarding school or an orphanage.
Project Personnel and Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of this project are children who are residing in residential care, or orphanages, in these three countries.
Outcomes to Date
The project has provided recommendations for enhancing the identification, prosecution and prevention of orphanage trafficking, and is developing evidence-based sensitisation activities designed to increase the rates of prosecution of orphanage trafficking in Nepal, Cambodia and Uganda.
Project Significance
This project is the first ever of its kind that addresses orphanage trafficking and is catalytic in transforming responses across the civil society, government, law enforcement and prosecutor sectors in three countries. It contributes to SDG’s 8.7 and 16.2.
Related Link
External link to https://www.bettercarenetwork.org/orphanagetrafficking_webinar