Orphanages as a Front for Human Trafficking in the DRC and Africa More Generally

By: Austin Blessing

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC or Congo) is currently facing many problems, such as an ongoing Ebola outbreak, political unrest, and violent strife, a combination that has made solving each of the problems extra difficult.[1] These issues should not be overlooked, but another humanitarian issue in the DRC that we must pay due attention to is children being erroneously passed off as orphans for purposes of human trafficking.[2] This issue has plagued and affected not only the DRC but many other countries in Africa, as well as around the world.[3] Children are trafficked to and from orphanages for many reasons, including: to attract donations, funding, and volunteers for the orphanages; to fuel the demand for international adoptions; for child labor and sex trafficking; for the black market organ trade; as well as for other reasons.[4] This practice doesn’t just involve actual orphans, “around 80 percent of the more than eight million children in orphanages are not orphans and have at least one living parent.”[5]

One recent incident that showcases the larger problem facing Africa started in a small village in northern DRC.[6] In 2015, at least four families sent their children to a camp for the holidays.[7] This camp was supposedly free for the children and was meant to be a once in a lifetime opportunity for the children of these less than well off villagers.[8] However, all was not as it seemed and dreams soon became nightmares.[9] As it turns out, there was no camp.[10] Instead, these small children became victims of human trafficking and did not return home.[11] The parents, being without access to the legal resources they needed to help find their children, were left without answers for two years until what happened to the children was brought to light.[12] As it turns out, the kids were passed off as orphans and adopted to families in Belgium.[13] Even though the children have now been found, legal battles are still being waged over the fate of the children and of the perpetrators.[14] The orphanage at fault has been shuttered.[15]

This is not an isolated incident within the DRC.[16] In fact, in 2013, Congo, despite having one of the highest rates of orphaned children, “stopped issuing exit permits for adoptions . . . amid trafficking concerns,” however, “[c]ases underway at the time were still processed.”[17] However, this “crackdown on international adoptions by the [DRC] has spurred a black market in child smuggling, with Americans paying to get dozens of infants out across its jungle borders.”[18]

Unfortunately, the problem of orphanage trafficking is not isolated to the DRC. This incident is merely another example of something that happens around the globe, especially in Africa.[19]

One reason for trafficking is the increased use of orphanages, which when combined with corruption and lax regulations, allows for trafficking from the orphanages.[20] This allows for the all too familiar scenario of poor and disadvantaged persons being taken advantage of by those who have nefarious motives and who are willing to profit off the suffering of others.[21]

Another cause of this issue is the demand for children for international adoptions, particularly by those in the West who turn to Africa to adopt children due to the availability of children and the relative ease at which these children can be adopted.[22] The demand is so great that when countries crack down, black markets spring up to smuggle adopted children out of their countries of origin.[23]

Another reason for the rise in orphanages is “voluntourism,” which is when well-intentioned persons travel to volunteer in foreign nations.[24] However, despite the good intentions of the volunteers, they usually end up doing more harm than good regarding orphanages because it encourages the increased use of orphanages in order to create “attractions” for volunteers, encourages non-orphans to wind up in orphanages, and leaves the children vulnerable to abuse and exploitation due to lax regulations and oversight of orphanages.[25] Now, “in the right circumstances, volunteer tourism provides significant benefits for both the volunteers and the communities that receive them but  . . . volunteering in children’s institutions is a bad idea.”[26] In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to be careful when choosing where to volunteer and to be sure you are not doing more harm than good.[27]

One thing countries can do to help end orphanage trafficking is to adopt stricter laws, as well as to diligently enforce said laws and the ones already on the books, that are designed to prevent, target, and punish child trafficking as well as to better regulate the adoption process (which includes reducing the number of orphanages and regulating and monitoring those left open).[28] One specific action that countries should take is to more strongly restrict and regulate inter-country adoption (AKA international adoption) and favor domestic adoption.[29] The DRC took a step towards this in 2013 when it stopped issuing exit permits for adoption (although there are some indications that DRC officials had ulterior motives).[30] The DRC has since resumed allowing international adoption (although not entirely), but with greater regulations and safeguards in place (although the US State Department has issued a warning against adopting from the Congo because of uncertainties and corruption in the process).[31] The DRC is not alone, in recent years many countries have either stopped or restricted international adoption and the rate of international adoption has dropped drastically.[32]

When countries do have to resort to inter-country adoption, stronger measures should be in place to assure that the children being placed up for adoption do not have any family or domestic placement options and that they are being placed in good and legitimate homes in their new countries.[33] Countries can also adopt the Hague Convention, which is designed “to prevent the abduction, sale of, or trafficking in children” and gives preference to domestic adoption, “establishes international standards of practices for intercountry adoptions,” requires the best interests of the child to be considered, increases transparency in the adoption process, and more.[34] Resources and remedies should also be made available to victims and vulnerable persons in order to help the victims recover and to prevent others from being trafficked in the first place.[35] We should also educate people about both the harms caused by orphanages and the truth about international adoption in order to help people volunteer and adopt in a more responsible manner.[36]

The good news is the future looks positive as awareness of these issues is increasing, more and more countries continue to take steps to tackle the problems, and the rate of international adoptions is decreasing.[37]

While it is important to work prevent this in the future, and while we should be optimistic about the prospects for the future if we continue work to solve this problem, we must recognize that, unfortunately, it may already be too late to fully and truly help many of the kids and families already affected. Many of the children cannot be found or have perished, or at the very least have suffered traumas that will haunt them forever.[38] Additionally, it is a no-win scenario for kids like the DRC children who were adopted to good families in Belgium, who were misled and had no idea that the kid they were adopting was not an orphan, as the solution is either to reunite the kids with their biological parents, thereby tearing them from the stability and love of the home they were raised in, or having them stay put, thereby keeping them from their parents and their nation and culture. It is truly a no-win decision that can only be made after carefully considering what is best for all involved, and particularly what is best for the child.[39] Perhaps Flemish MP Lorin Parys summarized the situation of the Congolese children illegally adopted to families in Belgium best when he told the BBC that “ ‘[t]here are only losers in this story and the judge will have to determine where the best interests of the kids lie[.]’ ”[40]

#InternationalLaw #DRC #Congo #HumanTrafficking #Blogpost #AustinBlessing

[1] DR Congo Emergency, UNHCR, https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/dr-congo-emergency.html (last visited Dec. 26, 2019).

[2] Joanna Heywood, The Children Sent to a DR Congo 'Holiday Camp' Never to Come Back, BBC (Aug. 14, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48948774; Aaron Ross, Congo to Let 150 Adopted Children Leave Country After Two-Year Wait, Reuters (Feb. 22, 2016), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congodemocratic-adoptions/congo-to-let-150-adopted-children-leave-country-after-two-year-wait-idUSKCN0VV16F.

[3] Belgium Children Face DNA Tests Amid DR Congo Kidnap Fears, BBC (Jan. 29, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47042241; E.J. Graff, Opinion, The Problem with Saving the World’s ‘Orphans’, Bos. Globe (Dec. 11, 2008), https://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/adoption/docs/ejOPEDbostonglobe.pdf; Chloe Setter, Hope is on the Horizon for Tackling Orphanage Trafficking, Thomson Reuters Found. News (Mar. 29, 2019, 1:37 PM), http://news.trust.org/item/20190329133756-c3x2z/.

[4] Setter, supra note 3.

[5] Id.

[6] Heywood, supra note 2.

[7] Id. Even though “[w]hen the story broke in Belgium [only] four children were involved, [n]ow, the adoptive parents of a further 15 children are awaiting the outcome of DNA tests.” Id. “The 15 cases involved children who arrived [in Belgium] between 2013 and 2015.” Casey Quackenbush, Belgium Requests the DNA of Children Adopted From Congo Amid Kidnapping Fears, Time (Jan. 30, 2019), https://time.com/5516199/belgium-congo-dna-request-adoption/.

[8] Heywood, supra note 2.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Id. These kids are victims who were robbed of their homes and families, which is tragic, but it could have been much worse. Even though they already had families, for the most part the kids here wound up with good families in Belgium. This makes them the “lucky” ones because much worse things can and have happened to victims of trafficking from orphanages. Setter, supra note 3.

[14] Heywood, supra note 2. Additionally, many relationships have been damaged as family members point the blame at one another for sending the children away. Also, even if it is decided that it is in the best interest of the children to return them to the DRC, nothing can bring back the lost time. Id.

[15] Id.

[16] Tom Esslemont & Kenny Katombe, Exclusive - Congolese Ban on Overseas Adoptions Fuels Smuggling of Children, Reuters (Oct. 28, 2015, 10:53 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-congodemocratic-adoptions-smuggling/exclusive-congolese-ban-on-overseas-adoptions-fuels-smuggling-of-children-idUKKCN0SM1XH20151028; Ross, supra note 2.

[17] Quackenbush, supra note 7.

[18] Esslemont & Katombe, supra note 16.

[19] Belgium Children Face DNA Tests Amid DR Congo Kidnap Fears, supra note 3; Graff, supra note 3; Setter, supra note 3.

[20] Setter, supra note 3; Heywood, supra note 2.

[21] Setter, supra note 3; Heywood, supra note 2.

[22] Adoption From Africa: Concern Over ‘Dramatic Rise’, BBC (May 29, 2012), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18248007; U.S. Dep’t of State, Office of Children’s Issues, Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption (2018), https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/NEWadoptionassets/pdfs/Tab%201%20Annual%20Report%20on%20Intercountry%20Adoptions.pdf; Miriam Jordan, Overseas Adoptions by Americans Continue to Decline, N.Y. Times (Apr. 13, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/us/overseas-adoptions-decline.html; Adoption Inc: The Baby Business, Al Jazeera: Fault Lines (Oct. 10, 2018, 11:45 AM),  https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2018/10/adoption-baby-business-181009062851663.html.

[23] Esslemont & Katombe, supra note 16.

[24] What is Wrong with Orphanage VolunTourism?, Hope and Homes for Children (Apr. 15, 2019), https://www.hopeandhomes.org/blog-article/orphanage-voluntourism/.

[25] Id.

[26] Id.

[27] Want to Volunteer Abroad? Here’s Your Volunteering 10-Point Checklist, Hope and Homes for Children (Nov. 20, 2018), https://www.hopeandhomes.org/blog-article/volunteering-10-point-checklist/.

[28] Adoption From Africa, supra note 22; Setter, supra note 3; What is Wrong with Orphanage VolunTourism?, supra note 24.

[29] Adoption From Africa, supra note 22. “According to international law, inter-country adoption should be a last resort - and the rise in the number of children being adopted in Africa and moved to other countries is of concern to child welfare experts.” Id.

[30] Quackenbush, supra note 7; Ross, supra note 2. It should be noted that there are persuasive arguments in favor of international adoption, and it is often the best option for the children involved, but it should not be the first resort and must be well regulated. Mark Montgomery & Irene Powell, International Adoptions Have Dropped 72% Since 2005 — Here's Why, Business Insider (Mar. 4, 2018, 3:00 PM), https://www.businessinsider.com/why-international-adoptions-dropped-since-2005-2018-3.

[31] Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.), U.S. Dep’t of State, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/Intercountry-Adoption/Intercountry-Adoption-Country-Information/CongotheDemocraticRepublicofthe.html (last visited Dec. 27, 2019); Julie Zauzmer & Tara Bahrampour, After a Years-Long Halt in Adoptions by the Congo, the Arms of Waiting Families are Finally Filled, Wash. Post (Nov. 11, 2015), https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/home-at-last--congolese-adoptees-arrive-in-us-after-two-year-wait/2015/11/11/5323f05c-88ae-11e5-be39-0034bb576eee_story.html; DRC: The Department of State Strongly Recommends Against Adopting from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, U.S. Dep’t of State (June 21, 2018), https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/Intercountry-Adoption-News/drc--the-department-of-state-strongly-recommends-against-adoptin.html (last visited Dec. 27, 2019).

[32] Mark Montgomery & Irene Powell, supra note 30.

[33] Adoption From Africa, supra note 22; Heywood, supra note 2.

[34] Understanding the Hague Convention, U.S. Dep’t of State, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/Intercountry-Adoption/Adoption-Process/understanding-the-hague-convention.html (last visited Dec. 27, 2019). “[As of 2012 o]nly 13 African countries have ratified the Hague Convention, which provides various safeguards to try to ensure children are not adopted illegally.” Adoption From Africa, supra note 22. The DRC is not one of those countries. Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.), supra note 31

[35] Adoption From Africa, supra note 22; Heywood, supra note 2.

[36] What is Wrong with Orphanage VolunTourism?, supra note 24; Ashley Westerman, Why International Adoption Cases In The U.S. Have Plummeted, NPR (June 25, 2018, 5:01 AM), https://www.npr.org/2018/06/25/623114766/why-international-adoption-cases-in-the-u-s-have-plummeted.

[37] Setter, supra note 3; Heywood, supra note 2; Mark Montgomery & Irene Powell, supra note 30; Quackenbush, supra note 7.

[38] Setter, supra note 3.

[39] Heywood, supra note 2.

[40] Quackenbush, supra note 7.