Children's Medical Tourism Research Network Workshop: Ibadan 2025

COMMUNIQUÉ ISSUED AT THE END OF THE CHILDREN MEDICAL TOURISM WORKSHOP, IBADAN, 2025

Theme: Cross-Border Healthcare Seeking for Paediatric Populations

Venue: Imoran Centre for Professional and Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Date: 15–16 October 2025

Facilitators: Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan AND University of Bristol Medical Tourism Research Network

 

  • Preamble

The Child Medical Tourism Workshop was convened to critically examine the multi-sector challenges, ethical dilemmas, and legal implications surrounding cross-border medical care involving children from Africa. The workshop brought together medical professionals, legal scholars, ethicists, policy advocates, researchers, health administrators, social scientists, development partners, child rights experts, students and presenters from Nigeria, Malawi, Thailand and the United States.

Over two days, participants engaged in keynote presentations, panel discussions, case analyses, and academic paper sessions addressing the realities and risks of paediatric medical tourism in low- and middle-income countries. Discussions explored legal gaps, medical vulnerability, informed consent complexities, cross-border data privacy, exploitation, research ethics, adolescent health rights, and the economic and social consequences of outbound paediatric medical travel.

  • Key Concerns Raised

Participants identified the following pressing issues:

  • Weak Local Health Systems driving families to seek treatment abroad due to lack of specialised paediatric care and poor medical infrastructure.
  • Ethical and Legal Challenges, especially around informed consent for children, assent, proxy decision-making, and medical negligence across borders.
  • Exploitation Risks, including organ trafficking, unethical clinical practices, financial extortion, and emotional manipulation of desperate families.
  • Absence of Regulatory Oversight over medical tourism facilitators and brokers operating without legal accountability or professional standards.
  • Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Threats arising from cross-border transfer of children’s health data without adequate safeguards.
  • Socio-cultural and Financial Barriers, including medical visa delays, high treatment costs, language barriers, and family separation.
  • Lack of Continuity of Care, as returnee patients face inadequate post-treatment support and fragmented follow-up care.
  • Research and Knowledge Gaps, with inadequate African scholarship on children’s medical tourism and scarcity of empirical studies.
  • Vulnerable Adolescent Populations, especially in transnational reproductive health and gender-affirming care, facing legal ambiguities and moral contestations.

 

  • Resolutions

After extensive deliberations, participants resolved as follows:

  • Paediatric medical tourism must be recognised as a child protection and human rights issue, not merely a medical or economic activity.
  • The best interest of the child must be the primary consideration in all medical travel decisions involving minors.
  • Ethical safeguards must govern decision-making in medical tourism to prevent exploitation, misinformation, and coercion.
  • There is urgent need to strengthen African health systems to reduce dependency on foreign treatment.
  • Professional and legal regulation of medical tourism facilitators and brokers is necessary to protect families from abuse.
  • Cross-border medical data must be processed in compliance with international child data protection standards.
  • Research collaboration on children’s medical tourism in Africa must be expanded to inform evidence-based policy.

 

  • Recommendations

The workshop makes the following recommendations directed to key stakeholders:

To African Governments

  • Develop national legal frameworks to regulate medical tourism activities.
  • Strengthen paediatric health infrastructure and invest in specialised centres of excellence.
  • Establish bilateral agreements with destination countries to protect citizens seeking treatment abroad.
  • Enforce measures to prevent organ trafficking and medical exploitation.

 

To Healthcare Practitioners

  • Ensure genuine informed consent and child assent in cross-border care.
  • Promote ethical referral practices and verify foreign care standards before recommending treatment.
  • Uphold continuity of care through structured post-travel follow-up plans.

 

To Researchers and Academia

  • Expand multi-country research on paediatric medical tourism.
  • Integrate bioethics, consent, and child rights into medical and legal curricula.
  • Produce evidence to guide policy reform and child protection governance.

 

To Medical Tourism Facilitators/Brokers

  • Register under formal regulatory bodies and comply with professional codes of conduct.
  • Disclose all financial interests and maintain transparent service agreements.
  • Protect children’s data privacy and medical confidentiality at all stages.

 

  • Call to Action

Participants call for the establishment of an African Coalition on Ethical Medical Tourism to coordinate advocacy, regulation, and research to ensure safe, ethical, and rights-based cross-border healthcare pathways for children.

 

Signed:

Prof. Simisola Akintola

Workshop Convener

Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan

16 October 2025