From family separation to exploitation
Traffickers target vulnerable children in and around institutional care, including those who age out of child protection services. In addition, eight million children globally live in institutions designed to protect them, often known as orphanages, yet over 80 per cent of those children are not actual orphans. They are ‘paper orphans’—children whose families were deceived by promises of better opportunities and education for their children that have not materialized. What is driving this? A booming tourism and volunteer-industry that most people do not even recognize as perpetuating the problem.
Orphanage tourism operates in 37 countries (2025), where usually well-meaning travellers pay to visit and volunteer at children’s homes. To outsiders, these places look legitimate and helpful. But institutions can serve as access points for traffickers. The intersection of poverty, deceptive recruitment practices and tourism-driven demand is a destructive cycle that feeds on itself. The OSCE addresses these risks through prevention strategies and victim-centred responses, working with partners to strengthen protection frameworks for vulnerable children.