This session will explore the difficulties faced in modern families when children are born outside the ‘traditional’ family structures. Advances in medical science have made possible the birth of children to parents to whom they have no biological connection, including gestational surrogacy, and the birth of children to same-sex and gender reassigned parents, whose relationships may not be recognised in the individuals’ countries of origin. This, coupled with unforeseen complications/non-recognition with international adoption, may mean that due to conflicts of international law, children are sometimes born stateless. This lack of citizenship not only contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but can lead to further discrimination as the children have no access to adequate medical care, education or freedom of movement internationally. The legislative framework requires reforms that place heavy emphasis on the intertwined considerations of immigration law and family law policy in order to cope with these ‘invisible’ children. The panel will also consider the plight of children removed from their families and placed into orphanages. In some cases, the children are not orphans at all but their parents have been ‘persuaded’ to give up their children and they are subsequently ‘adopted’, sometimes overseas. There can, if corruption is taking place, be a huge revenue for these establishments. The panel will examine the issue of ‘orphanage tourism’ and highlight the worldwide attempts to control and prohibit the removal of children in these circumstances. Global legislative action is required to stop the insidious form of child exploitation.