Pakistani authorities arrested Dr. Mubina Cassum Aboatwala, chair of the NGO HOPE, on charges of orphanage trafficking. On August 6, 2025, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) accused HOPE of trafficking minors disguised as adoptions.
The FIA said, “HOPE was neither a registered orphanage nor legally empowered to arrange adoptions.” Yet the group pushed children forward as “abandoned babies,” offering little proof of how they entered its care. The case erupted after the US Consulate General’s Fraud Prevention Unit flagged three adoption visa applications with “strikingly similar documentation,” sparking an investigation.
The idea of vulnerable “orphans” in the Global South attracts big money from donors and unwitting volunteers who mistakenly believe they are doing the right thing. Sadly, many “orphans” face sexual abuse, forced labor, forced begging, or are sold into illegal adoptions.
Orphanage trafficking looms beyond just Pakistan
The scandal is not an isolated one. In June 2024, a prominent social worker, was arrested by the FIA after the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service alerted Pakistani authorities to possible orphanage trafficking. As reported by The Friday Times,
“Pakistan’s regulatory gaps create conditions in which children can be transformed into ‘paper orphans’, their family ties obscured or falsified in order to facilitate cross-border transfers.”
Similarly, UNICEF found that nearly 80 per cent of children in ‘orphanages’ had at least one living parent in Cambodia.
Families were persuaded, and sometimes pressured, to give up their children with promises of education and support. Those children were then presented as orphans to attract donations or facilitate foreign adoptions.
Technically, Pakistan has the laws it needs to root out this kind of exploitation on paper. However, weak safeguarding allows this kind of exploitation to persist. Every province mandates orphanages to obtain licenses, yet unregistered institutions still operate widely. The government routinely ignores notices of non-compliance.
Family-based care over institutionalization
Institutionalization causes clear and serious harm. According to the Lancet Commission, one of the world’s leading medical journals, children in these settings face developmental delays, attachment problems, and lasting mental health issues. Experts call institutional care a form of “structural neglect,” noting that even well-funded, legal facilities cannot replace the loving relationships children need.
These cases show Pakistan must prioritize family-based care over institutionalization. Poverty, stigma, or temporary crises should not lead to permanent separation. Investing in family-support programs and developing formal kinship and foster care systems can keep children in safe, nurturing homes. Prosecutions may punish individuals, but only policy reforms that strengthen families and enforce existing laws will offer lasting protection. Without urgent change, the gaps exposed by the Burney and HOPE cases will continue to endanger children.
Call to Action: passing H.R. 4732
What these high-profile cases underline most clearly is that Pakistan —like many countries—must strengthen community and family-based care rather than default to institutionalisation. With investment in family-strengthening programmes and proper enforcement of existing laws, children can remain within safe and nurturing families, and become less vulnerable to exploitation.
Freedom United’s orphanage trafficking campaign echoes this urgency. The bipartisan US bill H.R. 4732, developed with Freedom United’s support, would help prevent children from being trafficked into orphanages and support family-based care instead. Passing H.R. 4732 would be a critical step in closing the loopholes that allow orphanage trafficking to thrive. Join Freedom United in urging lawmakers to pass H.R. 4732 to protect children worldwide from exploitation.
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