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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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 Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:04 am Post subject: Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti |
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Try to help some orphans devastated by an earthquake, and this is the thanks you get 
Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti
By Joseph Guyler Delva Joseph Guyler Delva � Sat Jan 30, 5:22 pm ET
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) � Haitian police have arrested 10 U.S. citizens caught trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-stricken country in a suspected illicit adoption scheme, authorities said on Saturday.
The five men and five women were in custody in the capital, Port-au-Prince after their arrests on Friday night. There are fears that traffickers could try to exploit the chaos and turmoil following Haiti's January 12 earthquake quake to engage in illegal adoptions.
One of the suspects, who says she is leader of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children's Refuge, denied they had done anything wrong.
The suspects were detained at Malpasse, Haiti's main border crossing with the Dominican Republic, after Haitian police conducted a routine search of their vehicle.
Authorities said the Americans had no documents to prove they had cleared the adoption of the 33 children -- aged 2 months to 12 years -- through any embassy and no papers showing they were made orphans by the quake in the impoverished Caribbean country.
"This is totally illegal," said Yves Cristalin, Haiti's social affairs minister. "No children can leave Haiti without proper authorization and these people did not have that authorization."
U.S. authorities could not be reached for immediate comment on the arrests.
But Laura Sillsby from the Idaho group told Reuters from a jail cell at Haiti's Judicial Police headquarters, "We had permission from the Dominican Republic government to bring the children to an orphanage that we have there."
"We have a Baptist minister here (in Port-au-Prince) whose orphanage totally collapsed and he asked us to take the children to the orphanage in the Dominican Republic," Sillsby added.
"I was going to come back here to do the paperwork," Sillsby said. "They accuse us of children trafficking. This is something I would never do. We were not trying to do something wrong."
In addition to outright trafficking in children, authorities have voiced fears since the quake that legitimate aid groups may have flown earthquake orphans out of the country for adoption before efforts to find their parents had been exhausted.
As a result, the Haitian government halted many types of adoptions earlier this month.
There are no reliable estimates of the number of parentless and lost children at risk in Haiti's quake-shattered capital. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
"I was going to come back here to do the paperwork," Sillsby said. "They accuse us of children trafficking. This is something I would never do. We were not trying to do something wrong."
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This could be a story of some well-meaning folks who are just clueless. If so, it should be pretty easy to clear up.
On the other hand, one of the kids is saying that her parents aren't dead and she isn't an orphan.
In one report, the 10 are claiming they are being mistreated--because they don't have air conditioning. Clueless may be too weak a word. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| On the other hand, one of the kids is saying that her parents aren't dead and she isn't an orphan. |
Yeah, that child saying that not only is she not an orphan, but that she thought she was going to a camp or something really makes it sound like they just outright lied to her. I'm sure they felt their intentions were good, but ultimately, this sounds like unabashed kidnapping with the intention of giving -- or perhaps even selling -- these children to Western parents. |
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dragon777
Joined: 06 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Sounds like a money making racket to me. Trading in kids who have parents! Sure we don't know the whole story but it does look suspicious. Surely being Christian does not exonerate one does it? |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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| There was a lot of trafficking in kids after the tsunami in 2004, non orphans being handed off to be adopted, and I heard a lot about pedophiles taking advantage of the chaos, so I guess the bigger aid agencies and NGOs aren't taking any chances now. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
| There was a lot of trafficking in kids after the tsunami in 2004, non orphans being handed off to be adopted, and I heard a lot about pedophiles taking advantage of the chaos, so I guess the bigger aid agencies and NGOs aren't taking any chances now. |
It seems you may have fallen victim to NGO propaganda which they always hype after a natural disaster in an attempt to justify their existence.
Few Reports of Increased Human Trafficking in Tsunami-hit Nations
February 2005
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There has been virtually no increase in verified incidents of human trafficking in countries hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami, says John Miller, director of the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
"The number of actual reported cases attributed to the tsunami is, thankfully, very small at this point," Miller said in a January 12 interview with the Washington File, but he cautioned that this might change.
In the days following the disaster, a number of widely circulated media reports said predators were taking advantage of the chaos to snap up orphaned children for the lucrative human slave trade. But Miller said authorities from the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) have been able to confirm only one or two cases so far.
U.S. efforts regarding human trafficking in the tsunami aftermath have been focused on encouraging governments and charitable organizations "to take the common-sense education and prevention and warning measures that will be helpful in avoiding the worsening of this problem in the coming months," he said.
Immediately after the tsunami struck, Miller said, his office was in communication with nongovernmental organizations on the ground in the affected areas suggesting steps to reduce the opportunities for exploitation, such as the identification and registration of children in camps and the education of camp workers on the increased dangers of trafficking. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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Arrest of Americans deepens Haiti adoption debate
Haiti questions Americans over child 'kidnapping'
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer David Crary
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NEW YORK � The debate over international adoption, already a bitter one, has intensified in the aftermath of Haiti's earthquake and the arrest of 10 Americans for trying to take children out of the devastated country without permission.
Some groups are urging a long moratorium on new adoptions from Haiti, saying there is too much chaos and too high a risk of mistakes or child trafficking. Other groups fear any long-term clampdown will consign countless children to lives in institutions or on the street, rather than in the loving homes of adoptive parents.
Chuck Johnson, chief operating officer of the National Council for Adoption, said the arrests of the 10 U.S. Baptists would probably undercut his organization's push to expand adoptions from Haiti as soon as feasible.
"It was a critical mistake � the Haitian government has been very clear they did not want any children leaving without its express permission," Johnson said Monday. "Maybe the Americans thought they were helping 33 kids, but now there's going to be a much slower process and maybe even a ban on future adoptions � and that would be a tragedy." |
article continues at link
Yes, this is a tragedy. IMHO, the definite benefits of many orphans being adopted into loving families quickly outweighs any risk of potential exploitation of a small number. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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Other groups fear any long-term clampdown will consign countless children to lives in institutions or on the street, rather than in the loving homes of adoptive parents.
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I see this as only likely if 'the loving homes of adoptive parents' are being opportunistic. The home would have been available a couple of months ago before the earthquake and will still be available a couple of months later. There's something creepy about people about using Haitian kids as fashion accessories.
Go a little slow to make as sure as possible the kids are in fact getting a loving home. |
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runthegauntlet
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Location: the southlands.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 1:55 am Post subject: |
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Despicable.
I hope those people stay in jail for a while.
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"God is our provider and God gives us strength and comfort," said Carla Thompson, one group member. "We have our Bibles and we are OK." |
Great, let's see how long that attitude keeps up. A few more years in prison should do wonders for their 'faith'. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 8:01 am Post subject: |
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| runthegauntlet wrote: |
Despicable.
I hope those people stay in jail for a while.
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"God is our provider and God gives us strength and comfort," said Carla Thompson, one group member. "We have our Bibles and we are OK." |
Great, let's see how long that attitude keeps up. A few more years in prison should do wonders for their 'faith'. |
So, these people are "despicable" and should stay in prison because they are religious? Is that what you are saying? |
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Bondrock
Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Location: ^_^
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
Yes, this is a tragedy. IMHO, the definite benefits of many orphans being adopted into loving families quickly outweighs any risk of potential exploitation of a small number. |
Seriously? You think its okay to let a "small number" of kids get anally probed by some pedophiles or sold into sex-slavery as long as the "many" are adopted into "loving" families?
Is this what you really believe, Bacasper? |
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runthegauntlet
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Location: the southlands.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
| runthegauntlet wrote: |
Despicable.
I hope those people stay in jail for a while.
| Quote: |
"God is our provider and God gives us strength and comfort," said Carla Thompson, one group member. "We have our Bibles and we are OK." |
Great, let's see how long that attitude keeps up. A few more years in prison should do wonders for their 'faith'. |
So, these people are "despicable" and should stay in prison because they are religious? Is that what you are saying? |
No, they should stay in prison because they kidnapped children. They're despicable because they kidnapped children and then said it was for god. Like god would condone stealing children.  |
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runthegauntlet
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Location: the southlands.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:16 pm Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
Yes, this is a tragedy. IMHO, the definite benefits of many orphans being adopted into loving families quickly outweighs any risk of potential exploitation of a small number. |
Luckily, not everyone shares that opinion. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Bondrock wrote: |
| bacasper wrote: |
Yes, this is a tragedy. IMHO, the definite benefits of many orphans being adopted into loving families quickly outweighs any risk of potential exploitation of a small number. |
Seriously? You think its okay to let a "small number" of kids get anally probed by some pedophiles or sold into sex-slavery as long as the "many" are adopted into "loving" families?
Is this what you really believe, Bacasper? |
Paranoid sexual fantasies notwithstanding, do you really believe it is better for hundreds or thousands of kids to be definitely deprived of loving families and grow up in orphanages because maybe some of them will be abused?
Some children already in families get abused. Should we then remove all children from all families and place them in orphanages, too?
Most kids are pretty resilient from sex abuse. Recovering from a childhood without love is much more difficult. |
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NovaKart
Joined: 18 Nov 2009
Location: Iraq
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| Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:00 am Post subject: |
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I've known people who have adopted children and considering the complexities of adoption and the chaos going on in Haiti I think it's likely that this is a misunderstanding.
My cousin worked in an orphanage in Haiti years ago and said that some of the children were not up for adoption but were just there because their parents couldn't afford to take care of them.
I think what likely happened is that there was just a lack of communication. The missionaries thought all of the children were supposed to be adopted and didn't confirm it. It's not like they can call their parents on the phone they probably don't even have one. Government regulations, especially dealing with adoption, are so complex and contradictory that this could easily happen.
I'm skeptical of the sensational stories of human trafficking. I'm not saying it doesn't happen but that perhaps it's exaggerated. People are ready to crucify these missionaries but I really think it's probably a misunderstanding. |
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