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According to this article, the Latvian government is seeking to raise the minimum age at which children living in institutions in the country can be sent abroad to stay with a "host family" in the US. The article reports that, currently, children under the age of seven have been sent abroad in these host programs. The Welfare Ministry's proposed law would raise the minimum age to twelve. "The ministry also wants to introduce a norm that explicitly states foreigners taking care of children abroad would not be prioritized when decisions concerning adoption are made," says the article…
The government of Nigeria is being called on to pass a bill to help put an end to the use of "baby factories" in the country, according to this article from the News Agency of Nigeria. The bill, called the Chartered Institute of Social Work Practitioners of Nigeria Bill, would "address the challenges of child abuse, human trafficking, baby factory, among others in the country" and would allow social workers to effectively carry out their duties in "stemming the tides of modern day slavery," says the article.
According to this article from the Guardian, the US government has separated 429 asylum-seeking families in the past two years. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against the current US government administration, alleging that "the US government has violated due process for hundreds of asylum-seeking families by separating parents and children without a hearing and without showing the child would be endangered by staying with the parent," says the article. And there are reportedly plans in place by government officials to expand this practice.
"These cases…
Indigenous children in the Australian capital of Canberra are highly overrepresented in the child protection system, according to this article from the Canberra Times. "Fewer than three per cent of children in Canberra are indigenous but they make up about a quarter of kids in the child protection system," writes the author. The numbers of indigenous children in the care system have been increasing, growing by 40 percent over the past five years, even though "in 2017 the amount of substantiated child abuse reports as well as the overall number of kids receiving protection services fell…
This article from TIME Magazine tells the story of a family in the US that has been separated by deportation and explains the current government immigration policies and practices that are leading to many other family separations in the country. According to the article, the Trump adminstration is casting a "much wider net" than the previous administration in terms of who it is targeting for immigration enforcement, stating "any and all of the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally are now a priority for deportation." This approach has led to a surge in arrests and…
"Christian leaders who oversee programs that help orphans and vulnerable children say large orphanages are on the decline. What's in: holistic approaches that attempt to either re-unite children with their families or provide a family-like setting for children who cannot return to their biological families."
Seven boys at an institution for children with disabilities in the Chelyabinsk region of south-central Russia have reportedly been sexually abused by staff and visitors at the orphanage, according to this article from Human Rights Watch. The boys are now in the care of foster or adoptive families. The article details the alleged abuse and exploitation of these children at the hands of a visitor to the institution whom they called "Sergei," as well as other visitors and orphanage staff. According to one of the lawyers representing the boys, a suspect has been arrested and the governor has…
925 children in Gauteng, South Africa have been left in institutions, primarily child and youth care centres (CYCC), as they await placement into foster care by the Gauteng social development department, according to this article. "According to the department’s third quarter report, the delay in placing children in need of foster care in foster care homes was due to the delay in placing adverts and obtaining relevant reports from psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as obtaining the relevant legal documents from prospective foster parents," says the article. Furthermore, the…
Over 5,000 unaccompanied South Sudanese refugee children have fled their country’s civil war and arrived in Uganda without parents, according to this news piece from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. This article shares the stories of these unaccompanied minor refugees in Uganda and the hardships they have faced. “The number of child refugees travelling alone to escape fighting is rising in alarming levels,” says Suwedi Yunus Abdallah, a UNHCR child protection specialist. The article describes the work of Save the Children, World Vision, and other UNHCR child…
The Australian federal government has announced its plans "to divert well-meaning Australian volunteers from foreign orphanages that exploit fake orphans for profit," according to this article from the Guardian. While the government is still considering recommendations to discontinue Australian aid funding to overseas orphanages from the recent inquiry on modern slavery, the Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, will announce "a campaign involving states, territories, schools and universities to curb Australian involvement in so-called orphanage tourism in developing nations."…