American couples exploit Haiti orphanage chaos

While the US media offers glowing reports of happy American families showing off their newly adopted children from Haiti, there are real fears among aid workers that some over-eager adoptive parents have been exploiting the general chaos in Port-au-Prince, and the relaxing of adoption rules.

With adoptions being rushed through, some children who are not actually orphans may have joined the exodus.

The children who have been airlifted out since the earthquake have been going mainly to the United States, France and Holland, all of which have a history of adopting from Haitian orphanages. But Haitian law is very strict on the subject and it can take three years for an adoption to be formalised. That was until January 12.

There are two reasons why mistakes may have been made since the quake:

First, not enough time has been taken to ascertain whether parents of children found wandering alone in Port-au-Prince are actually dead or are simply waiting to be reunited.

Second, poor Haitians are known to leave their children in orphanages for short periods of time and pick them up later. In the immediate aftermath of the quake, it is feared some children were whisked abroad without the proper checks being made.

As Christopher de Bono of Unicef said last week: "In orphanages in Haiti there are an awful lot of children who are not orphans."

A recent report described an American woman arriving in Haiti to take the orphan whose paperwork had been virtually completed when the earthquake struck. Surveying the wrecked orphanage, she decided on the spur of the moment to take four other children with her.

Other reports describe Americans putting pressure on Haitian authorities to let children go despite adoption paperwork not being complete, some even persuading senior US politicians to use diplomatic channels on their behalf.

As Alyson Eynon of Save the Children in London told The First Post today: "It's not just disreputable people exploiting the situation we have to worry about. Sometimes it is misplaced kindness."

A breakdown in the system at recognised Haitian orphanages is not the only problem. Aid agencies now fear that children living in makeshift camps or recovering in hospital are being targeted by criminals eager to sell them for adoption through traffickers.

Older children risk being sold into prostitution or used as street beggars in neighbouring Dominican Republic.

As a result, Unicef and other children's agencies are racing to round up all orphaned or separated children before criminal gangs get to them first.

"This is a huge, huge, huge opportunity for the gangs," said Nadine Perrault of Unicef. "There's lots of evidence of the traffickers moving very fast, using all sorts of means."

There have been reports of traffickers luring children from the many makeshift camps that have spruung up around Port-au-Prince, by offering them food and shelter. "No one can say for sure whether it was family members or people just taking them," said Margarett Lubin of Save the Children.

Several measures have been instigated by Unicef and the Haitian authorities:

• Child protection squads have been posted at the border with the Dominican Republic and at the airport in Port-au-Prince where some aid workers have reported seeing children dropped off by car and flown out by charter aircraft.

• Hospital staff have been asked to report any adults claiming to be related to injured children following reports of criminals posing as volunteers or even doctors.

• President Reve Preval has announced that any adoptions must receive his personal authorisation.

The potential for abuse is enormous. In one makeshift camp established on a Port-au-Prince football pitch, where 450 families have settled since the earthquake, a Times reporter found 38 children who were either orphaned by the January 12 quake or have lost contact with their parents.

"They're in danger... They could fall into the hands of traffickers and pimps - especially the girls," Blemurned Junior, the camp¹s senior social worker, told the Times.

Beyond the camps, the situation is even more perilous. The Haitian police force is in disarray, and 4,000 criminals are on the lose after the main jail was hit by the earthquake. The opportunities for child traffickers - know in Haiti as 'buscons' - are great.

Jon Bugge of Save the Children said: "Even before the earthquake Haiti was a dangerous place for children, and now it's even more dangerous. They are incredibly vulnerable to abuse, exploitation or harm."

As for the children who were evacuated to the west in the immediate aftermath of January 12, the rush to get them out has already caused problems. A source told The First Post that some of the first 100 children sent to Holland, where adoptive parents were lined up, have ended up in foster care because the parents were not ready for them or the children weren't adequately prepared for their new lives.