Haiti holds 10 US citizens
Suspected of child trafficking:
HAITI: Haitian police were holding 10 US citizens late
Saturday on suspicion they tried to slip out of the country with 31
Haitian children in a trafficking scheme, a government minister said.
Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin said the police
arrested five men and five women with US passports, and two Haitians, as
they tried to cross into the Dominican Republic with the children Friday
night.
He said two pastors were also involved, one in Haiti and one in
Atlanta, Georgia.
“This is an abduction, not an adoption,” said Christallin.
Christallin said the US citizens did not have the proper documents to
take the children out of Haiti, nor letters of authorization from their
parents.
The children were aged two months to 12 years and had come from
different places, he said. “What is important for us in Haiti is that a
child needs to have an authorization from this ministry to leave the
country,” he said.
US embassy officials were not immediately available to comment on the
case.
Haitian officials have voiced fears that child traffickers will take
advantage of the chaos after Haiti’s massive January 12 quake to slip
out of the country with children in illegal adoption schemes.
There is also concern that legitimate adoption agencies may rush to
take earthquake orphans out of the country before proper checks have
been conducted to confirm their parents perished.
Haitian police chief Mario Andresol said the Americans were being
held at the Judicial Police headquarters in Port-au-Prince and that the
children had been transferred to a facility north of the city, in Croix
de Bouquets. He said an investigation was underway to determine how the
children came into the Americans’ custody.
“Now it’s up to the Justice Department do to their job,” Andresol
said.
A document posted online by the group asks for donations to bring 100
Haitian children to safety in the Dominican Republic and for volunteers
to take care of the children during two-week stints. Under the heading
“Purpose,” it reads: “Rescue Haitian orphans abandoned on the streets,
makeshift hospitals, or from collapsed orphanages.” It says the group
has leased a 45-room hotel in Cabarete as a temporary shelter for the
children. It also includes a prayer request “for God to continue to
grant favor with the Dominican government in allowing us to bring as
many orphans as we can into the DR.”
Port-Au-Prince, Sunday, AFP
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