The federal government has announced plans to divert well-meaning Australian volunteers from foreign orphanages that exploit fake orphans for profit.

The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, will on Thursday announce a campaign involving states, territories, schools and universities to curb Australian involvement in so-called orphanage tourism in developing nations.

It is also still considering whether to follow an inquiry’s recommendation to divert Australian government aid funding away from foreign orphanages.

The measure falls short of the ban on orphanage tourism called for by a Liberal-led foreign affairs and aid subcommittee late last year.

In a joint statement with the education minister, Simon Birmingham, Bishop said the campaign would help volunteers make informed decisions and avoid becoming involved in the exploitation of children.

“The Australian government will work with states and territories and universities to ensure school groups and students are not unwittingly visiting or volunteering in programs that exploit children,” the statement said.

“This work will help to ensure the good intentions of so many Australians are fulfilled through positive actions that protect them and vulnerable children overseas.”

The announcement comes after significant lobbying by the Liberal senator Linda Reynolds within the Coalition. It also comes after campaigns from groups like the Cambodia Children’s Trust and ReThink Orphanages, an alliance of charities and not-for-profits opposed to orphanages in developing nations.

Organisations such as the United Nations children’s fund (Unicef) have long called for western nations to reduce their support for orphanages in developing nations, and instead redirect their efforts to funding familial or community-based care for children.

The vast majority of children in south-east Asian orphanages still have living parents, but are lured to institutions with the promise of education and a better life.

Many institutions are run as businesses for the profit of their owners, sustained by the well-meaning tourists who visit, donate or volunteer.



In Cambodia, for example, 80% of children in orphanages still have living parents, according to Friends International.

The number of orphanages in the country has exploded by 60% in the decade from 2005, largely appearing in the main tourist areas of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. The phenomenon has occurred despite poverty levels reducing overall.

In the worst cases, children are beaten, forced into labour, starved or sexually abused.

Research shows that even in the best-run institutions, children suffer harmful effects. Children in institutional care tend to have higher rates of behavioural issues, reactive attachment disorders, poor physical health and reduced intellectual capability compared with children who stay with their families or relatives.

Guardian Australia last year revealed the true extent of Australian support for orphanage tourism in south-east Asia. Funding and volunteers come from Australian travel agencies, charities, churches, universities or high schools.

About 51% of all church attendees in Australia are contributing funding to institutional care overseas, according to an ACCI study.



In 2016, Griffith University law and human trafficking expert, Kate van Doore, found 57.5% of Australian universities were advertising orphanage placements through international volunteering programs.

Van Doore also found 22 Australian-based and 61 overseas-based travel agencies or organisations sending Australian volunteers to residential care centres.

In some states, up to 15% of public schools had fundraised or visited overseas orphanages.

Last month, Guardian Australia also revealed that former volunteers at the Jodie O’Shea orphanage, one of Bali’s biggest children’s institutions, had made a formal complaint about its practices.

The complaint, which was passed to Indonesian authorities, alleged the majority of the children were not orphans, but were from a remote island named Sumba, where their parents remained.



The orphanage brought in up to five groups of tourists a day, the complaint alleged.