US Church Group Suspect of Trafficking Haitian Children... Group Found with 33 Undocumented Children

We have all seen the heart breaking scenes of the Haitian Earthquake survivors desperately searching for their families in the rubble and refugee camps, and suffering horrible injuries themselves, but barely three weeks after the disaster, a US based Baptist Group has determined they have the right to decide what Haitian children are orphans, and then spirit them away across the border into the Dominican Republic without any official documentation.

Are they incredibly naïve or incredibly evil? What are the motives of this Idaho based church group who were arrested and charged with trying to transport 33 undocumented Haitian Children who had survived the earthquake, out of Haiti. The group's bus was stopped at the border trying to cross into the Dominican Republic. On the bus officials found 33 Haitian children ranging from ages 2 months to twelve years. None of the children had any official documentation or passports. Their families and relatives could be searching for them.

The ten member Baptist church group from Idaho, known as the Baptists' Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission said that they were carrying out a plan to rescue 100 Haitian children and then take them to a 45 room hotel in the Dominican Republic that they were converting into an orphanage. A spokesperson for the group says "they were just trying to do the right thing." The group is being held at police headquarters pending a hearing before a judge early next week.

The detention of these Americans, the first group arrested since the January 12^th earthquake, has sparked controversy in Haiti where the plight of lost or abandoned children is paramount. Using the example of the South Asia tsunami in 2004 where thousands of children were separated from their parents and relatives, Haitian authorities have suspended all international adoptions. This gives families and relatives time to search and eventually find their missing children. In the tsunami situation most children were reunited with their families. However, sometimes months and years went by, but the children were in a safe place where they received good care and an education, and most importantly could eventually be found.

Quick, international adoptions out of their country will make matters worse for Haitian families. These people are dealing with basic survival right now while searching for their children. Spiriting these children away and out of the country is stupid, selfish and suspect. Seriously injured children are being treated in the US with eventual plans to return them to Haiti to be reunited with their families.

Imagine being separated from your baby during a disaster, and then having some self appointed church rescue group take your baby away in the dead of night to another country. The Red Cross, UNICEF and the government have been registering children who may have been separated from their families and putting them into temporary shelters.

Laura Silsby, a spokes woman for the group said the group had the best of "intentions" and paid no money for the children.

Sources:

St. Pete Times

CNN News

Associated Press

timesonline