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Haitian children must be kept safe - in Haiti
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share thisIt's not yet clear why members of a church group from Idaho thought they could spirit away 33 Haitian children - citizens of a sovereign nation - without seeking the government's clearance.
Haitian authorities charged 10 Americans last week with child abduction and criminal conspiracy after stopping the Americans and undocumented Haitian children at Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic.
Regardless of how the case evolves, it illustrates Haiti's misery. Several desperately poor Haitian parents said they turned over their children to the American group in hopes that they might end up with better lives.
The devastating Jan. 12 earthquake has raised interest in the adoption of Haitian orphans in the United States and Europe.
But the need for legal scrutiny, for the protection of the children, is even greater now than before the earthquake.
One of the principal tragedies of Haiti's long impoverishment is the perpetual plight of its children. Child-trafficking was one of Haiti's common criminal problems long before the earthquake.
Within Haiti, as reported by Time magazine, about 300,000 Haitian children are, in effect, slaves known as restaveks. Their poor parents have given them over to more affluent Haitian families. They are not educated and often are subject to grueling labor, sexual abuse and isolation.
And in the wake of the earthquake, the whereabouts of many children are not known not only because of the high death toll, but because many orphans fell into the hands of child traffickers.
Small wonder that Haitian authorities reacted as they did last week.
The question regarding the reconstruction of Haiti is where to begin. Socially, global institutions that advocate the welfare of children must work to ensure that Haitian children have a chance at better lives - in Haiti.
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