Laura Silsby Faces up to 3 Years in a Haitian Prison

Kidnaping charges were dropped against Laura Sislby of idaho for attempting to take 33 children - all of whom it is now reported still had at least one living parent - from post quake Haiti to her orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

However, she faces up to three years in prison if convicted on the remaining charge, the "organization of irregular trips," from a 1980 statute restricting travel out of Haiti signed by then-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. the charge of organizing the trip was also pending against Jean Sainvil, a Haitian-born pastor from Atlanta who also helped organize the venture. Sainvil did not immediately respond to message left on his voicemail.

In a separate case Monday, three suspected Haitian traffickers were caught driving 24 children in the town of Mirebalais. The group was traveling with the children's birth certificates, suggesting they meant to put them up for adoption, local judge Vicran Charles said.

The judge said the suspects said they were taking the children to a woman who runs an orphanage in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and promised the children a better life.

The children, who were placed in a nearby orphanage, range in age from 1 to 13. None appeared to be orphans.

"I have a mom and a dad," said 8-year-old Jolen Plaisir. "They didn't tell me why they were sending me to an orphanage."

As Reported Here First...

On Monday, Feb 22 I wrote on this blog about a story about to break regarding 12 of the 53 kids brought o Pennsylvania from Haiti by Governor Rendell is a huge publicity stunt.  

Today, The Associated Press is reporting the tip of the iceberg, but not the Rendell connection as of yet. 

Hospital: 12 Haitian kids in Pa. are here legally

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By JOE MANDAK

The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 24, 2010; 3:54 PM

PITTSBURGH -- A Pittsburgh hospital official says 12 children brought to Pennsylvania after the Haitian earthquake did have paperwork to begin the adoption process.

The federal government has asked the American Red Cross to trace the family ties of the children because they might not qualify for "humanitarian parole." That can include adoption.
But University of Pittsburgh Medical Center consultant Leslie McCombs said Wednesday that the children all had documents signed by at least one parent and Haitian court officials surrendering custody.

What they didn't have was American families waiting for them - something Haitian orphans now must have to be allowed into the United States.

Those guidelines were being established the day the children in Pennsylvania left Haiti.

The Road to Hell ...

UPDATE on the continuing saga of the  Predators Arrested in Haiti posted yesterday, and updated.

"From what I know until now, this is a kidnapping case," Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN regarding The Baptist Ten. "Who is doing it, I don't know. What are the real objectives or activities, I don't know. But that is kidnapping, and it is more serious because it's involving children."

He added, "The children certainly were not fully willing to go, because in some cases, from what I heard, they were asking for their parents, they wanted to return to their parents."

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince downplayed accusations of kidnapping and child trafficking, claiming the Holy Rollers had been detained for "alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration."

George Willeit of SOS Children's Villages believes that at least 10 of the 33 children they were removing are not orphans.

The missionaries plan, as outlined here, called for them to arrive Jan 22; take a bus to Prt au Prince the following day and "gather
100
 orphans 
from 
the 
streets 
and 
collapsed 
orphanages..." and bring them to their Dominican "refuge" on Jan 24th.

Their own words prove they had no intention of making any attpemt whatsoever to determine if the children they were snatching up were orphans or not!

So much for their claims of being well-intentioned! Is it well intentioned - or kidnapping - to walk into a supermarket in and grab any kid whose mother turns her head to select food?

And how do they justify plans to create Villas for adopting parents instead of spending that money to help the kids in Haiti!  This is KIDNAPPING with intent to BABY SELL, otherwise known as CHILD TRAFFICKING!  Wish I was on their jury!

Is this any different from Islamist militants accused of kidnapping thirteen Christian girls from a remote area of south-east Nigeria in May of 2008?  Did they have good intentions as well?  Two of the recovered  girls, Mary Chikwodi Okoye, 15, and Uche Edward, 14, were said to have been planned as brides for Muslim men to expand Islam.

The militant kidnappers also destroyed the Deeper Life Bible Church, St Mary's Catholic Church, All Souls Anglican Church, Church of Christ in Nigeria, Redeemed Christian Church of God, and the Redeemed Peoples Mission.  

Kidnapping of teenage Christian girls by Muslims, the pastor said, has become a recurring practice in Ningi. Muslims have kidnapped at least 13 Christian girls in the town, Christian sources said.
"These girls are usually kidnapped, forcefully converted to Islam, and then married out to other Muslim men against the will of both the girls and their parents," Joseph Abdu, pastor of Deeper Life Bible Church said.

Both incidents are kidnappings for the purpose of religious conversion. In both cases the victims were a commodity. Neither had the best interest of the victims in mind. One saved them from Christianity and the other for Christianity.


Will American Christians - Baptists - support or denounce them?

Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti

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.

Blogging About Haiti and Adoption

Bloggers have been busy and thoughtful. Four bloggers; 30 posts:

Bastardette

IT'S NOT ABOUT HAITI, DAMN IT! IT'S ABOUT ADOPTION. IT'S ABOUT US

Haiti: A Little Bit About Important People in Their Own Words

Haiti: Adoption Business Trumps Aid

Haiti: Women's Health Care: "All About Abortion;" Solar Powered Bibles in the Food Line

American Life League Says No to Condoms and Contraceptives for Haitians

Bastard Nation's Statement on Haitian Adoption and Babylifts

Operation Pierre Pan Postponed; Politicians Pander

Haiti Child Evacuation: A New Operation Pedro Pan (my keystone Haitian entry)

Haiti: Misc. Updates on Adoption and Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson and Adoptee Rights

Harlow's Monkey

Why some people are pushing to airlift orphans out of Haiti instead of sending resources to Haiti

Haiti

A comparison of the wellbeing of orphans in institutions

FamilyPreservation 

Soledad O'Brien's Eyewitness Report on the Haitian Relief Effort and Adoption

Israeli Social Service: Take Care of Our Own Kids Before Haiti's

International Adoption: A last resort 

Child Trafficking Feared in Haiti


Getting the Word Out re Haiti


Fast-Tracking Haitian Adoptions

The Word is Getting Heard  


Children are best left with their families 


Trgedy Exploited: A Sad History Repeating Itself in Haiti
Vietnam Operation baby Lifet all over again


Foreign Adoption last resort for Haiti quake orphans: Unicef

Quebec Exercises Proper Caution; Dutch Rush in: Haitian Adoptions

Haiti Update: Follow The Money

History Unlearned Repeats...Painfully and Shamefully

Haitian Adoptions: U.S. Caves to Demands

Not the Time to Adopt Haitian Quake Victims, Experts Say

Haitian Adoption UPDATE: Donaldson, UAI, and & My Perspective

Haitian Adoption Push

Reputable Ways to Help the Children of Haiti and Their Families

 

Birth Mother, First Mother Forum

Red Tape Holds Haitian Families Together

 

 

 

 

 

Child Trafficking Feared in Haiti

Trafficking fears as Haiti children go missing

United Nations officials say children have gone missing from hospitals in Haiti since the devastating January 12 earthquake, raising fears of trafficking for adoption abroad.

"We have documented around 15 cases of children disappearing from hospitals and not with their own family at the time," said UNICEF adviser Jean Luc Legrand.

"UNICEF has been working in Haiti for many years and we knew the problem with the trade of children in Haiti that existed already beforehand.

"Unfortunately, many of these trade networks have links with the international adoption market."

The agency said it had warned countries during the past week not to step up adoptions from Haiti in the immediate wake of the quake.

However several are fast-tracking adoption procedures already under way, including Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States.

Mr Legrand said the situation was similar to the aftermath of the tsunami in Asia five years ago.

Trafficking networks were springing into action immediately after the disaster and taking advantage of the weakness of local authorities and relief coordination "to kidnap children and get them out of the country".

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said child enslavement and trafficking in Haiti was "an existing problem and could easily emerge as a serious issue over the coming weeks and months".

The UN mission in Haiti has stepped up surveillance of roads, UNICEF officials said.

Mr Legrand said there was separate but only anecdotal evidence of people taking children by road to the neighbouring Dominican Republic and loading children on to planes.

"We have seen over the past years many children being taken out of the country without any legal procedure," he said.

"This is going on. This is happening now. We are starting to have the first evidence of that, this is unquestionable."

He was unable to give details on the 15 missing children or their condition or clearly connect the anecdotal observations in Haiti's chaos with trafficking.

The cases were documented by social workers and by partner non-governmental organisations working for UNICEF in hospitals.

Fast-Tracking Haitian Adoptions

EU urged to fast-track adoptions from Haiti: Spanish presidency

22 January 2010, 16:27 CET

(MADRID) - The Spanish presidency of the European Union will next week urge the bloc to forge a common position on fast-track adoptions from Haiti, Madrid said Friday.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos "will on Monday propose to the council (of EU foreign ministers) that there could be a joint common response," Spain's Vice-President Maria-Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said.

She said the aims included "speeding up procedures for adoption cases already under way at the various missions," and "reinforcing aid and international protection for isolated minors travelling alone or orphans," in conjunction with the UN children's agency and the Red Cross.

The vice-president also told a cabinet meeting that the third objective was to "buttress action ...in Haiti to ensure the protection of minors," adding: "We hope it will get the backing of the 27" nations comprising the bloc.

Several countries are fast-tracking adoption procedures already under way, including Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. [Note: U.S. State Dept. claiming 600 adoptions were "in the pipeline" and after the worst is over and the airports re-opened, private planes will go in from church groups etc. to snatch up kids.]

The January 12 earthquake in Haiti killed at least 75,000 people and left more than a million homeless living in streets, parks and makeshift tented encampments.

Fernandez de la Vega said there had been several applications for adoptions from Haiti in Spain since the quake.

On Friday, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said several children had gone missing from hospitals in Haiti since the quake struck, raising fears of trafficking for adoption abroad.

"We have documented let's say around 15 cases of children disappearing from hospitals and not with their own family at the time," said UNICEF adviser Jean Luc Legrand in Geneva.

"UNICEF has been working in Haiti for many years and we knew the problem with the trade of children in Haiti which existed already beforehand, and unfortunately many of these trade networks have links with the international adoption 'market'," Legrand said.

The agency underlined that it had warned countries during the past week not to step up adoptions from Haiti in the aftermath of the quake.

Legrand said trafficking networks had sprung into action immediately after the disaster "to kidnap children and get them out of the country."

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