American church group arrested on Haitian border accused of abducting children

[cynical lady]

Ten members of an American Baptist Church are to appear in a Haitian court this morning after being accused of running an illegal adoption scheme.

 

The group from Idaho said that they were carrying out a rescue mission and had accompanied more than 30 children as part of a plan to take at least 100 orphans out of Port-au-Prince to an orphanage that they run in the neighbouring Dominican Republic.

 

It was claimed last night that most of the children had living relatives and did not appear to know where they were going.

 

A government official described the group’s action as an “abduction”.

 

The controversy came as the UN mounted a massive food distribution effort to feed two million people in Port-au-Prince. Nearly three weeks after the earthquake, the World Food Programme said that it would open 16 fixed collection sites, with only women allowed access.

 

The Idaho group, who are being held at the judicial police headquarters in the capital, said that their intentions were honourable and that they had gained access to the children through a well-known Haitian pastor.

 

Laura Silsby, the group’s spokeswoman, said: “In this chaos the Government is in right now, we were just trying to do the right thing.”

 

She said that the group had documents from the Dominican Governmen but did not seek any paperwork from the Haitian authorities, adding that only those without close family would be considered for adoption.

 

Yves Christallin, the Haitian Social Affairs Minister, said that they did not appear to have the proper documentation or authorisation for the children, and accused the group, who belong to a charity called the New Life Children’s Refuge, of more sinister motives. “This is an abduction, not an adoption,” he said.

 

The children, aged from a few months to 12, seemed to have little idea where they were being taken when The Times met them, with some saying that they had parents in Haiti.

 

George Willeit, of SOS Children’s Village, a care centre on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince where the children are now staying, told The Times: “What we know is that some of these children still have their parents. There was an older girl, aged 8 or 9, and she was crying and saying, ‘I’m not an orphan. I still have my parents’. This girl was thinking that she was going to a summer camp or boarding school. She didn’t know what was happening to her. “One of the babies was completely dehydrated. She was not able to drink. It looks like this was because she was used to drinking from her mother’s breast. We had the Red Cross here and we had to immediately take this baby to the hospital.”

 

The SOS Children’s Village includes a school and small houses where groups of children are raised by allocated “mothers”. One of them, Jusane Hasie Agath, 40, was looking after five of the children. “They are all OK now,” she said. “This baby has a fever, she came in last night. There is one who says he knows his family but we don’t yet know if it’s true or not.”

 

Many children in Haitian orphanages have living relatives but have been abandoned because they cannot be cared for. “There were 380,000 children living in orphanages before the earthquake,” Deborah Barry, a child protection adviser for Save the Children, said. “The majority of them were there for economic reasons rather than because they didn’t have family.”

 

The Government has limited the number of adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking. “By no means are we any part of that. That’s exactly what we are trying to combat,” said Ms Silsby.

 

The Americans include members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, and the Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, as well as people from Texas and Kansas.

 

The group described their plans on a website where they also asked for contributions, saying that they would “gather” 100 orphans and take them by bus to the Dominican resort of Cabarete, before building a more permanent orphanage in Magante.

 

“Given the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon our hearts the need to go now versus waiting until the permanent facility is built,” the group wrote.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7009970.ece

[Jacaylbaro]

There was an older girl, aged 8 or 9, and she was crying and saying, ‘I’m not an orphan. I still have my parents’. This girl was thinking that she was going to a summer camp or boarding school. She didn’t know what was happening to her. “One of the babies was completely dehydrated. She was not able to drink. It looks like this was because she was used to drinking from her mother’s breast. We had the Red Cross here and we had to immediately take this baby to the hospital.”

Sad ,,, very sad indeed.

[Eng.Cadde]

Yeah,and as usual,I think we should Blame the evil MEN for buying young kids for their pleasure.

[Valenteenah.]

It's incredible how fast these people move. I was reading the other day how quite a lot of children have already been 'adopted' by French families. Who facilitates or regulates these adoptions when no structures of government are currently working?

[ailamos]

If there's a particular group of people I loathe it's those missionaries that are present in every natural disaster to take advantage of the desperate, brainwash people and steal children for adoption in religious households.

[grasshopper]

who even knows where the kids would've ended up. we keep hearing stories that children and weak people are being targeted for human trafficking (either to harvest their organs or god knows what else)

[BiLaaL]

Sadly, this sort of thing is not limited to Asia or the Americas. Child trafficking also occurs all across Africa - East Africa included. I'd hate to think about it but I'm sure Somali children also get trafficked - via neighboring countries. Child traffickers find conflict-ridden regions too hard to resist.

 

I remember a story of a kidnapped child who was later freed from his Somali captors in Mogadishu. The captor apparently confessed to wanting to sell the child to foreigners.

 

Just because we don't hear about it enough doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It is true that a Somali parent is less likely to voluntarily give up their children for legal adoption(no matter how dire their state) but finding comfort in such thoughts alone is complacent on our part. I think this is a pressing issue which demands attention from Somali activists and all those who care.

[Ismahaan]

Originally posted by BiLaaL:

I remember a story of a kidnapped child who was later freed from his Somali captors in Mogadishu. The captor apparently confessed to wanting to sell the child to foreigners.

 

Watch this video.

You will be surprised how easy it is to steal Somali kids. This is the saddest story I have ever heard. :mad:

 

Waxaaba ka sii daran calamada christan ka aay ilmaha ku sameeyeen Subhaan Allah.

 

[cynical lady]

Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

 

Trafficking in Persons Report 2009

 

Haiti has had a weak government since widespread violence and political instability led to the resignation of the president in 2004. National elections in 2006 elected a president and a Parliament that replaced an appointed interim government, but the effectiveness of state institutions remained severely limited. Civil unrest in April 2008 left the country without a government for five months. The Government of Haiti’s ability to provide basic services and security for citizens, and to control rampant crime in the capital, Port-au-Prince, continues to be compromised by limited resources, an untrained and poorly equipped police force, entrenched government corruption, and perennially weak government institutions. The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) continued to maintain more than 6,950 troops and 1,900 police throughout the country to provide security. Haiti remains a Special Case for the fourth consecutive year as the new government formed in September 2008 has not yet been able to address the significant challenges facing the country, including human trafficking. The U.S. government, however, notes the progress of Haiti’s government, and urges the Government of Haiti to take immediate action to address its serious trafficking-in-persons problems. The following background and recommendations are provided to guide government officials.

 

Scope and Magnitude: Haiti is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Haitian women, men, and children are trafficked into the Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, the United States, Europe, Canada, and Jamaica for exploitation in domestic service, agriculture, and construction. Trafficked Dominican women and girls are forced into prostitution. Some may be patronized by UN peacekeepers in Haiti, although MINUSTAH is implementing programs among its personnel to suppress this practice. Several NGOs noted a sharp increase in the number of Haitian children trafficked for sex and labor to the Dominican Republic and The Bahamas during 2008. The majority of trafficking cases are found among the estimated 90,000 to 300,000 restaveks in Haiti, and the 3,000 additional restaveks who are trafficked to the Dominican Republic. Poor, mostly rural families send their children to cities to live with relatively wealthier “host” families, whom they expect to provide the children with food, shelter, and an education in exchange for domestic work. While some restaveks are cared for and sent to school, most of these children are subjected to involuntary domestic servitude. These restaveks, 65 percent of whom are girls between the ages of six and 14, work excessive hours, receive no schooling or payment and are often physically and sexually abused. Haitian labor laws require employers to pay domestic workers over the age of 15, so many host families dismiss restaveks before they reach that age. Dismissed and runaway restaveks make up a significant proportion of the large population of street children, who frequently are forced to work in prostitution or street crime by violent criminal gangs. Women and girls from the Dominican Republic are trafficked into Haiti for commercial sexual exploitation. Some of the Haitians who voluntarily migrate to the Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, the United States, and other Caribbean nations, subsequently face conditions of forced labor on sugar-cane plantations, and in agriculture and construction.

 

Government Efforts: Haitian officials recognize that human trafficking is a serious problem in the country, including the exploitation of restavek children as domestic servants. As a policy matter, however, the national police child protection unit, the Brigade for the Protection of Minors (BPM), does not pursue restavek trafficking cases because there is no statutory penalty against the practice. Haitian law also does not specifically prohibit trafficking in persons, which limits its ability to punish traffickers and protect victims. It did shut down a number of unregistered orphanages whose residents were believed to be vulnerable to trafficking. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MAST) should make every effort to complete its revision of and resubmit to Parliament its comprehensive anti-trafficking bill; Parliament should consider it, and then pass a law prohibiting all forms of human trafficking. Until then, authorities could begin to enforce existing criminal statutes penalizing slavery, kidnapping, forced prostitution and forced labor to prosecute trafficking offenses. Judges, police, and prosecutors throughout the country need additional anti-trafficking training before they can effectively prosecute and punish trafficking offenders. Lacking its own resources, the government cooperates with numerous NGOs to assist victims and to train officials about trafficking issues. Haitian immigration officers working with MINUSTAH proactively identified potential child trafficking victims at airports and the border with the Dominican Republic. The Office of National Identification, with technical assistance from the Organization of American States and the Government of Canada, began to provide national identity cards to persons who reached the legal voting age since the last election. It continued to provide birth certificates to citizens who had not previously been issued official identity documents. The government does not follow systematic victim identification procedures, though Haitian authorities work closely with NGOs to refer identified victims -- primarily children -- and coordinate protective services as needed. Shelter services for adult trafficking victims do not exist, and the government should make every effort to open or support facilities which could provide men and women with appropriate assistance.

 

SOMALIA (Special Case)

 

Somalia remains a Special Case for a seventh consecutive year due to the lack of a viable central government since 1991. Control of its geographic area is divided among the self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland, the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, and the remainder of the country, which is nominally under the control of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Somalia currently lacks a national governing structure that could assume responsibility for addressing the country’s human trafficking problem. During the reporting period, the TFG remained preoccupied with the task of securing government representatives and installations from attacks by extremist elements; in this perpetual state of insecurity the government was not able to address human trafficking. In addition, the TFG currently lacks the necessary means to identify, investigate, or address systemic issues in Somalia, including those related to trafficking in persons; its capacity to address human trafficking will not significantly increase without tangible progress in reestablishing governance and stability in Somalia.

 

Scope and Magnitude. Information regarding trafficking in Somalia remains extremely difficult to obtain or verify; however, the Somali territory is believed to be a source, transit, and perhaps destination country for trafficked men, women, and children. In Somali society, certain groups are traditionally viewed as inferior and are marginalized; Somali Bantus and ******* are sometimes kept in servitude to other more powerful Somali clan members as domestics, farm laborers, and herders. During the year, the widespread use of children in fighting forces in the country was noted; the extremist groups opposed to the TFG conscripted and recruited children as young as eight years of age, including girls, for use in armed conflict, including soldiering, planting bombs, carrying out assassinations, portering, and domestic servitude. There were reports that militias loyal to the TFG or associated with members of the TFG conscripted children. Armed militias also purportedly traffic Somali women and children within the country for sexual exploitation and forced labor. Because of an inability to provide care for all family members, some Somalis willingly surrender custody of their children to people with whom they share family relations and clan linkages; some of these children may become victims of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. There are anecdotal reports of children engaged in prostitution within the country, but the practice is culturally proscribed and not publicly acknowledged.

 

Human smuggling is widespread in Somalia and there is evidence to suggest that traffickers utilize the same networks and methods as those used by smugglers. Dubious employment agencies are involved with or serve as fronts for traffickers, especially to target individuals desiring to reach the Gulf States. Somali women are trafficked to destinations in the Middle East, including Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as to South Africa, for domestic labor and, to a lesser extent, commercial sexual exploitation. Female Somali refugees residing in Yemen are trafficked by Somali men into prostitution in Aden and Lahj governorates. Somali men are trafficked into labor exploitation as herdsmen and menial workers in the Gulf States. Some Somalis transit Djibouti to reach Yemen. Somali children are reportedly trafficked to Djibouti for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor, as well as to Saudi Arabia through Yemen for forced begging. Members of the Somali diaspora use fake offers of marriage to traffic unsuspecting victims, many of whom are relatives, to Europe for commercial sexual exploitation. Ethiopian women are trafficked through Somalia to Yemen and onward to other destinations in the Middle East for forced domestic labor and sexual exploitation.

 

Government Efforts. The respective authorities operating in Somalia’s three regions did not make significant progress in addressing human trafficking during the reporting period. Understanding of the phenomenon of human trafficking and how it is to be identified and addressed remains low among government officials and the general population. In Somaliland, laws explicitly prohibit forced labor, involuntary servitude, and slavery, which, in addition to trafficking for sexual exploitation, may be prohibited under the most widespread interpretations of Shari’a and customary law. There are no such laws that prohibit these practices in other parts of Somalia. There is neither a unified police force in the territory to enforce these laws, nor any authoritative legal system through which trafficking offenders could be prosecuted. There were no known prosecutions of human trafficking offenses during the reporting period. Most crimes, including rape, were addressed under customary law, with penalties varying among clans; most punishments involve paying animals to victims’ clan members. There were reports that government officials may be involved in trafficking; business people involved in human smuggling and trafficking in Puntland, for instance, purportedly work with the knowledge of influential officials within the administration. In February 2009, Puntland’s newly elected president, accompanied by police and other officials, raided Marero village, a major hub for human smuggling and trafficking. No arrests were made.

 

http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/123140.htm

[BiLaaL]

Ismahan, thanks for posting the video. I feel sorry for all the parents in the video. May Allah ease their pain. Children as young as 20 months are being trafficked! :mad:

 

Of all the tragedies unfolding in our country, this is one of the more painful ones. As if Somali children didn't already have enough to deal with.

[Naden]

The horrors of what happened to these children and others will emerge in the coming months. I am wondering how many more were abducted before this church batch.

[Jacpher]

[Aaliyyah]

oh how sad..I was actually reading an article the other day abt Haitian kids being adopted by Canadians. n I was like wondering to what extent do they go to actually verify whether the parents of those kids are alive or not or whether they just ship them here....

 

my heart goes out to those parents and kids...

 

But, theres nothing that we can do abt it..and like Bilaal I heard similar stories taking place in hamar when the civil war broke out...they were specifically being taken by Italians ...heart breaking..

 

people do take advantage of tragic times...

 

what can be said? just a prayer I guess *sighs*

 

salaam