Trafficking and Politics

Per my recent posting regarding the political games some child advocacy groups like to engage in...you can read about it in this article, which quotes the Haitian director of Kenson's orphanage who apparently was visited by Haitian officials and child advocates and was essentially questioned if he was trafficking kids. People have doubted whether child advocacy groups can really influence government policy. In fact, on the conference call a few days ago, this question was posed by a parent directly to government officers who denied that this could happen. However, some of these child advocacy groups have long arms that are linked to the press and deep pockets that are lined with money. That sounds like a recipe for politicking if I've ever seen one.

Let me say I do believe adoptions need oversight. And that oversight does need to evaluated and reevaluated as time goes on. But the bottom line is international adoption accounts for a very small percentage of the kids who are being served by the Haitian government. The statistics that came out a few weeks ago estimated 2, 500 kids in the adoption process worldwide and 380, 000 orphans in Haiti prior to the earthquake. So to me it makes a lot more sense to concentrate the bulk of one's efforts on the 377, 500 kids who are not inolved in adoption. The 2, 500 children in the adoption process are probably some of the most monitored kids in Haiti. They are in orphanage that does have some supervision by the Hatian government. The prospective adoptive parents have to assemble a dossier, have a homestudy, do state and federal background checks, and in some cases travel to Haiti. Adoption documents could be forged or officials bribed but it seems like a lot of work to traffic kids through adoption when there is a semi porous border with the Domican Republic that would be a much easier route for trafficking. (Which by the way, is done with children and adults.) See the update below...the only arrest I know of in recent history involves this border, not anyone trying to use the adoption process.

What also galls me about most of this is that these same child advocacy groups seem to be silent on issues that could vastly improve not just the lives of the 380, 000 orphans but the remaining children in Haiti. Currently a major issue in Haiti is a culturally acceptable practice of resteveks. Restevek literally means to stay with and refers to children who are sent to stay with someone who is not their birth family. It is not an adoption. What usually happens is that these children are expected to work for the family, without pay. These children usually do not attend school and may live in terrible conditions or suffer abuse. This is not a "high society" problem. It is accepted at most socio economic levels. I think I read that there are estimates that there might be 200, 000 resteveks in Haiti.

Another major issue with child welfare in Haiti is the lack of enforcement on issues directly related child welfare. Abuse and neglect often go unpunished (or uneducated, if it really is an issue of educating the parents). Hundreds of orphanages operate without performing adoptions and are not required to be inspected by the Haitian government. And even those that are inspected could surely benefit from some common sense help on issues like nutrition and discipline. Mental handicapped or physically handicapped children have few places where they can go and receive the care they need. Infants are left to die on river banks or on garbage piles but no one investigates these crimes. A beautiful girl from Conleigh's orphanage was returned to her mother who then left her outside to die. Sexual abuse, when it occurs to an adult, is often not prosecuted in Haiti. Imagine how often children are sexually abused with no system to stop the abuse. School and education are not mandatory so Haiti faces a 50% literacy rate. Imagine the impact if these child advocacy groups would be as vocal on these issues as they are on adoption.

Yes, I know that accusations are rarely leveled straight on. Instead, they are stirred and simmered, whispered to reporters who are eager for a story and don't really investigate what is being said. 15 children disappear from a hosptial following the earthquake. Children who may have living parents who are looking for them were transported out of Haiti following the earthquake. And prior to the earthquake, buy a Haitian child for a mere $50. (That one is one of my favorites as no one actually tried to test the system and see if the "papers" that were supposed to be produced really could get a child out of Haiti. No one even saw the papers, they were just told by a Haitian man that they could get papers. And most interesting of all, no child was actually produced. I'm sure the Haitian who got $50 out of that blan was quite pleased with himself.) Almost always the issue of legal adoption is raised and somehow there always seems to be this insinuation that adoption is linked to trafficking when in fact there is little evidence to support this. I do not have a problem of people raising the issue if they can show that there is currently a system in place where people are falsifying adoption documents in order to traffic children. But no one has provided proof of this. Instead what we're left with are sketchy internet and television articles that seem to paint international adoption with a dark, slightly underhanded brush. And those brushstrokes result in what we are seeing today. International adoptions that are under such scrutiny that they take years (2 or 3) to complete or grind to a halt, not just in Haiti but in many other countries. Kids sleeping on the street in Haiti, under tarps, praying that it doesn't rain, despite the fact that they have a bed ready for them in the U.S., waiting for the government of their homeland to act and sign them out.

Makes me crazy...that's all I can say.

Or how about this first hand report of a bizarre encounter one ministry had with this group yesterday. "Something very odd went down with unicef yesterday. We were instructed in writing to pick up patients from the Comfort ship. When our driver got there to get the people there were unicef vehicles taking them to some camp. The unicef folks were not talking, they were just large and in charge. I'd love to believe somebody just got their wires crossed, but I'm not so sure. Something smelled wrong about it. The Comfort ship went to the work of getting us patient names, details, lists and a time to come get them. Clearly they were unaware of what was about to happen." The Comfort is a US military hospital on a boat. You can read the rest of the story from the Livesays here.

Wanna read another things that will make your eyes pop out of your head? The Haitian prime minister is quoted in an article by CNN as saying that trafficking is of concern because Haitian children are trafficked and then their organs harvested. I am not kidding you. He said this as easily as one would say the sun sets in the west. If he truly believes this, than he should be providing evidence. And if he truly believes this, than why are groups that have large amounts of power with the Haitian government not providing him with the facts that discount this? I'm not saying it couldn't happen or that it has never happened. But you and I both know that it's probably an anomoly, especially since no one has yet to produce evidence to the contrary.

Here's another good post on this topic from a family working with a water ministry in Haiti.

Latrine Babies

Okay, just read an article this evening by Reuters on a group of Americans who were arrested this week on child trafficking. They were trying to take a group of 33 children from Haiti to the Dominican Republic without papers. They said that they were moving them from a collapsed orphanage in PAP to another orphanage in the DR. But didn't have paperwork for the children and said they were intending to go back to Haiti to finish it. ARRRR!! Who knows if the lady who said this was telling the truth or not. I can't imagine that anyone would really think it would be okay to take kids across a border and then to back to do the paperwork. Cases like this mean more scrutiny for adoptions. Nevermind that this group obviously was avoiding anything that might look like a legal adoption. In other words, they knew what would be required to fly out of Haiti and into the US so they avoided the paperwork. They took the easiest way...the border with the DR. It is not about scrutinizing adoption paperwork and adding more steps to adoptions. It's about common sense and realizing that illegal activity is going to most likely occur in areas where there a lot less scrutiny. At least there has now been a documented case with arrests rather than just speculation.