Protect Haitian orphans

Opinion: February 6, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Miami Herald: The attempt by Baptist missionaries from Idaho to spirit 33 Haitian kids across the border into the Dominican Republic on Friday may have been well-intentioned, even admirable, but it certainly wasn’t very smart.

With Haiti in ruins, the streets and makeshift shelters are teeming with uncounted numbers of traumatized, homeless children. Haitian authorities have expressed well-founded fears that slave traffickers or organ-harvesters will take advantage of the chaos to seize this helpless prey.

They have rightly decided to stop new “adoptions,” phony or otherwise, by foreigners to protect Haiti’s children until things settle down. And that day may be a long way off.

Friends and relatives of the 10 Americans affiliated with the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, said they were on a rescue mission. The plan was to take the children, ranging in age from 2 months to 12 years, to a Dominican resort to care for them and later build a more permanent orphanage.

Common sense

Given the needs in Haiti, efforts to help are commendable, but that’s no excuse for ignoring the law or putting aside common sense.

The group was stopped at the border and taken into custody by Haitian authorities. The children are being cared for at an orphanage called SOS Children’s Village, whose director told The AP on Wednesday that none of the children who are old enough and willing to talk say they are parentless. Apparently, they were all given up by parents who could no longer care for their children.

In the current atmosphere of desperation, that’s not surprising, but unilaterally going into Haiti and taking children without the permission and knowledge of the government is a grave mistake. The current disorder does not nullify laws against child trafficking. Indeed, they are more relevant than ever and should be strictly enforced.