The earthquake in Haiti has dug up so many of the hidden complexities and cruelties that made Haiti the desperate place it was before the earthquake (recent progress notwithstanding) and make the rescue and rebuilding efforts there so fraught – child adoption, child trafficking, bad infrastructure, history of colonial invasions, US hospitals refusing care, the twisted nature of much post-disaster aid, and issues surrounding evangelical Christianity and its mission abroad, just to name a few.
Now the US is resuming suspended medical military flights to take injured
to US hospitals. The reasons for the suspensions were both murky and likely not flattering. Hence, many denials all around on the subject.
The deeper story broke over the weekend. On Friday, 10 apparently well-meaning evangelical Christians from a Idaho-based group were stopped at the Haitian-Dominican Republic border with 33 children they said they were taking to an orphanage at a Dominican resort. It turns out they did not have the proper paperwork … and that not all of the children were actually orphans or understood where they were going. This fiasco comes in the context of both worries about child trafficking and the absolute desperation of some parents who want their children to escape to a better life. You can read the most recent straight AP story here.
The BBC had a more personal take:
But on Saturday afternoon I suddenly stumbled into the middle of a case that is now grabbing headlines around the world.
‘
In the front office of the child protection police at Port-au-Prince airport I found 33 tiny children crammed on to benches and tables.
I had no idea who they were or where they had come from.
But it soon became apparent that something very strange was going on. The policeman on the door told me there were white people inside, Americans, and they were trying to smuggle the children out of the country.
The rumour mill turns fast in Haiti, and soon a dozen local journalists were turning up.
Then – as we all scrambled forward with our microphones outstretched – a prosecutor came out to talk to us.
“These people were caught while on their way to the border with 33 children,” he said. “They had no documentation on them at all, and no proof that these children are orphans.”
‘Legitimate orphanage’
But who were the white people inside the police station? No-one could tell us.
Then – as they were being taken to the back of the station – one of them, a middle-aged woman, managed to slip us a piece of paper.
On it was written her name, Laura Silsby, and the name of her organisation – The New Life Refuge, a Christian group from Idaho.
Late on Saturday night she was allowed out to speak to the media.
“In the time frame that they were with us the team deeply fell in love with the children,” she said.
“They are very precious kids that have lost their homes and their families, and are so, so in need of God’s love and compassion and a very nurturing setting.”
Ms Silsby said the group had received the children from a legitimate orphanage in Haiti and did not realise that additional paperwork was needed to take them out of the country.
Photo by United Nations Development Programme
Nathan Hegedus
Nathan Hegedus blogs about the changing nature of fatherhood and life on paternity leave in ”socialist” Sweden at Dispatches from Daddyland. He has lived for the past two years in Stockholm with his wife and ...
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-1, AP, BBC, child trafficking, christian, Dominican Republic, earthquake, evangelical, Haiti, hospital, Idaho, Laura Silsby, orphanage, orphans, Port-au-Prince, The New Life Refuge
