Posted on 01/30/2010 3:53:24 PM PST by greyfoxx39
The five men and five women were in custody in the capital, Port-au-Prince after their arrests on Friday night.
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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."
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"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.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
NAMBLA representatives?
Probably won’t make the state run fringe media....
Obama will regret the day he once again, reacted kneejerkingly wrong.
You must not know much about NAMBLA to jump to that conclusion.
He won’t regret anything. He cannot ever recognize that anything he does is wrong. If something fails it is because of opposition by Enemies. He is a Leftist and as such can do no wrong.
"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."
Haiti Orphanage New Life Children’s Home A Refuge To Children After The Storms
"World Harvest has been leading Christian mission trips to Haiti for 35 years conducting open air clinics for thousands of Haitians requiring medical care. Many dying children have been brought by Ms. Frederick from the remote regions of Haiti to New Life Children’s Home, a Haiti orphanage located in Port au Prince, with many being nursed back to health. The orphanage, established by World Harvest Missions Outreach, is currently taking in children who have become orphaned by the recent hurricanes and needs support for supplies for the children. It is hoped that funds can be raised for a hospital to be built near the orphanage compound."
I find it interesting that the DBM has pounced on this story while ignoring the many, many other stories of Christian organizations in Haiti doing the work without being arrested. Anything to make the Christians look bad.
I was half joking, half not. I don’t know much about NAMBLA, as I find the very concept of such an organization revolting. What did I miss, if you can post that kind of information in a public forum?
I'll give you 2-1 odds that what the authorities really mean is that orphans were taken out of the country before sufficient bribes were paid to issue the exit visas.
Per the Americans, a Baptist priest gave them permission to take the kids.
No paperwork but was going to come back for it later.
Well, if she has been doing this for years, she would know the procedures and provide something in writing given them claim to to the children.
At least someone at the border is paying attention.
No doubt kids need help over there. You just don’t start sweeping them up and taking them to the DR
Read the article, assume both sexes of children and accused, and think of kids as young as two months, and look at who is charged, what they do and where they were probably transporting the children to.
Those darn Baptist Priests and their Priestly robes.
There need to be safeguards. Any responsible charity should know how to provide the necessary documentation. If you’re concerned about people suffering — why take the chance of compounding that suffering? If parents, or legal guardians are still alive; there’s no justification for removing the children. Every nation on the planet has similar requirements — and for good reasons.
Bingo! Money changes everything.
You are right at one level, but are underestimating the chaos and lack of resources in Haiti at the moment. When convoys carrying food, and US military for security, have to turn back due to "unsafe conditions" you can imagine that a five year old separated from his or her parents is probably in a perilous situation. The folks trying to move them to a safer location were probably trying to do the right thing.
Given the government's response, it seems like it would be better to just leave the kids you find on the street where you found them. But that would be hard to do if you were listening to them cry.
Finding their parents will be a monumental task, and the children may well have starved to death before that occurs.
Many children are given up for adoption by parents who are alive but for whatever reason can’t or choose not to take care of them. I have several friends who have adopted such children through LDS social services here in the United States.
Likewise many of the children adopted from abroad are in the same situation. On the other hand there is trafficking of children that goes on—it’s not clear what this involves. Though even if the children are legally available for adoption the proper steps were not taken.
Third world bureaucracy is monumental even under the best of conditions, but under no circumstances should someone attempt to take children across an international border without proper documentation.
I applaud their efforts for working to bring these poor children to the USA, but they screwed-up and are fortunate that Haiti’s Justice and Penal systems are in disarray.
From what I read -these people were trying to take the children to *another orphanage* run by the same people.... Not to the U.S. IMHO This is not a good public relations event for the children of Haiti. This will possibly prevent others from trying to do what they can to help desperate children. Why make this into such a big story? If they needed to check out the people's credentials then just do so - why arrest them and make such horrid allegations?
“From what I read -these people were trying to take the children to *another orphanage* run by the same people.... Not to the U.S. IMHO This is not a good public relations event for the children of Haiti. This will possibly prevent others from trying to do what they can to help desperate children. Why make this into such a big story? If they needed to check out the people’s credentials then just do so - why arrest them and make such horrid allegations?”
I did not say that they were attempting to bring the children into the US, but that they attempted to bring the children over an international border.
And typically, when one parent travels internationally with a minor child, they are required to have a letter approving of the said travel from the absent parent.
So yes, shipping children across an international border without proper documentation is a crime, a crime every country.
And hopefully these poor orphaned Haitian children will soon be on their way to the USA, and those people who are under arrest in Haiti will be treated in accordance with Haitian Law.
however.... I still believe the intent of the people was to take the children to another orphanage that was run by the same organization as the one where they were formerly housed in Port-au-Prince. Sure - In normal circumstances, it is important to dot every i and cross every t - but from my limited views (on the internet, the TV, and a team from my town that is helping an orphanage in Haiti) - these are extraordinary circumstances and people need to use some COMMON SENSE! Do you really believe that these people thought they could "smuggle" 33 children across the border? No... they thought they were helping them and the ones at their previous orphanage - by transporting them to a safe, secure location. It is still an orphanage, it is still run by the original ministry that took care of these children before the earthquake....
What I was objecting to was charging these people with child trafficking for goodness sake!!! One of the Americans was an 18 year old girl...
And typically, when one parent travels internationally with a minor child, they are required to have a letter approving of the said travel from the absent parent.
I see NO correlation between parents taking children on a vacation trip and dealing with one of the worst (if not THE worst) natural disaster in recent history. There needs to be a balance of protecting the children from predators AND expeditiously getting them out of a "hell on earth".
One last question for you - what if the paperwork was lost/destroyed when the orphanage where they were living collapsed? Do you think they should live on the streets until it is found/restored? How long do you think that might take since most government buildings in Port-au-Prince were also destroyed? How long do you think little children can survive without proper food and shelter?
You're a mom of 2? Say there was a big earthquake here,and you couldn't find your kids. You would be just fine - say Russia or Mexico come over and take your kids out of the country? What are the chances of finding them...ever. Especially if there were no documentation.
Put yourself in their place.
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