Combating Orphanage Tourism Position paper for the Roundtable to discuss initiative paper 35069 from MP Van Haga

Abstract

Position paper K. van Doore for hearing / round table discussion Initiative note of member Van Haga: “A good intention is not always a good idea: a proposal to combat orphanage tourism” dated 27 March 2019. Thank you for the opportunity to provide a position paper for the Roundtable on Orphanage Tourism. This position paper focuses on the issue of orphanage tourism as a driver for the institutionalisation of children (including through orphanage trafficking) and makes recommendations for how the Dutch government might combat it. Orphanage tourism includes volunteering at, or visiting, orphanages in developing countries. This is an increasingly popular tourist attraction for tourists visiting Indonesia, Cambodia, Kenya, Nepal and Uganda, as well as many other developing nations. The demand for orphanage tourism creates a demand for children to be available in orphanages to volunteer with, which ultimately drives recruiters to traffic children into orphanages. Orphanage trafficking is the recruitment of children into orphanages or residential care institutions in developing nations for the purpose of ongoing exploitation and profit, particularly through orphanage tourism.2 It must be noted that orphanage tourism and orphanage trafficking are not synonymous. The effect of orphanage tourism on children can be considered a form of exploitation. The demand for orphanage tourism is a driver for orphanage trafficking but is not a form of modern slavery itself.3