A group of baptist missionaries have been arrested in Haiti on charges of trafficking children for adoption purposes. The group of ten allegedly attempted to smuggle 33 Haitian children into the Dominican Republic to set up an orphanage. The children, aged two months to 14 years, it has been discovered, are not all orphans.

According to the missionaries:

The church members, most from Idaho, said their Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission was aimed at taking youngsters across the border to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, where arrangements can be made for their adoption.

A spokesman for the group said: “In this chaos we were just trying to do the right thing.”

It is not yet known how the group got the children, but since the disastrous earthquake struck Haiti, international adoptions from the country have surged, as well as illegal child traffickers. With high-profile third world adoptions such as those of Brangelina and Madonna have raised ethical questions about the transportation of children from vulnerable situations to the West. In the past few weeks, child welfare organisations have been flooded with offers from families in the US and elsewhere willing to adopt children, something British head of counter-trafficking Richard Danziger refers to as “cowboy adoptions.”

“In these kinds of situations, there are all types of charities and church groups with, to be fair, good intentions,” says Richard Danziger, head of counter trafficking at the International Office of Migration (IOM).

“But that’s not the way to go about it – it doesn’t help an already messy situation. Children with no documentation get whisked away, and their families don’t know what has happened to them. Not only is it against the law, but it is taking advantage of people in a lousy situation,” he said.

Haitian officials have spoken out against the attempted abduction, with Prime Minister Max Bellerive saying these missionaries “knew what they were doing is wrong.” Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin said: “This is abduction, not adoption.” Cristalin went on to say, “This is totally illegal. No children can leave Haiti without proper authorization and these people did not have that authorization.” Haiti’s government has suspended international adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking.

Another problem being witnessed are children being adopted whose parents are still alive, but in no position to provide for them since the devastation of the earthquake struck.

“Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners,” said Adonis Helman, 44. “I’ve been thinking how I will choose which one I may give.”

“My parents died in the earthquake. My husband has gone. Giving up one of my kids would at least give them a chance,” said Saintanne Petit-Frere, 40, a mother of six. “My only fear is that they would forget me, but that wouldn’t affect my decision.”

International laws exist to protect against child trafficking in international adoption. According to Louise Fulford from Save The Children:

the priority is to keep the children within their “communities, their ethnic group and their cultures.”

Under the Hague Convention there is a preference for family-based solutions, she says. The second preference is to consider national adoptions, and when these solutions are not feasible then inter-country adoption would be a viable option.

Adoption within the country will be hardest to arrange with children who have health problems, such as HIV/Aids, disabilities, or many siblings. “Unfortunately, with inter-country adoption, it tends to be more the parents choose the child. People tend to want to adopt healthy babies,” Ms Fulford says.

UN guidelines stipulate that there should be no national or international adoptions for two years, she adds.

“This provides time to trace relatives. In most emergencies you can trace family members. It will take time. In the meantime, aid agencies are prioritising children who are unaccompanied – they are being referred to interim care centres. Agencies are working day and night to locate children on their own.”

Even before the earthquake, Haiti battled child trafficking, with roughly 2,000 children trafficked from the country every year. According to Unicef’s Roshan Khadivi “These children generally ended up being used as domestic labour, being sexually abused or illegally adopted in the US and Canada.”

Clearly, the problem is that poverty-reduction strategies and aid have not been effective in enabling a basic sustenance level in pre-earthquake Haiti. Funding should be available to communities and families so that giving up children does not seem like the only option available. I’m happy to hear that adoptions have been put on hold by the Haitian government as clearly more time is needed to reunify families before well-meaning but painfully ignorant and misguided fundamentalists fly in and try to save the bodies and souls of these kids.