Author and activist J.K. Rowling has called for the closure of the world’s orphanages. In an op-ed in The Guardian on Thursday, the Harry Potter author called for closing the institutions that hold some 8 million children worldwide and sending the children to their parents or to other families. According to Rowling, most children held in orphanages are not in fact orphans but have been removed from their parents, sometimes because of poverty. “The idea of any child being taken from their family and locked away, all too often in atrocious conditions, is particularly poignant at this time of year,” wrote Rowling.