Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Haiti's Orphans: New U.S. Policy Expedites Adoptions
Share:
by Rhonda J Mangus | January 20, 2010 at 03:48 am
731 views | 60 Recommendations | 10 comments
Videos
Tens of thousands of Haitian children are believed to be orphaned by the earthquake that struck Haiti last week. In response to this humanitarian crisis, the United States Department of State loosened its policy on Visa requirements for orphans already matched with couples for adoption in the United States and amidst concerns that the Haiti adoptions are too early.
Tens of thousands of children are believed to have been orphaned in the quake, and their fate remains unclear, aid groups and United Nations officials say.
Catholic leaders in Miami are pushing both governments to have children who appear to be orphaned airlifted to temporary group homes in South Florida. Several aid groups who focus on children, however, say every effort should be made to reunite them with relatives.
It normally takes three years to adopt a child from Haiti, because of a lengthy process required under Haitian law. The Haitian government has had reason to be cautious; there are about 200 orphanages in Haiti, but United Nations officials say not all are legitimate. Some are fronts for traffickers who buy children from their parents and sell them to couples in other countries. “In orphanages in Haiti there are an awful lot of children who are not orphans,” said Christopher de Bono, a Unicef spokesman.
Under the new policy, announced Monday night by the Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the United States is waiving visa requirements on humanitarian grounds for Haitian children already in the pipeline for adoption. Some adoptions had already been approved by Haitian authorities, but the United States also agreed to let in other children who had been matched with American parents but had not gotten a final blessing from Haitian officials.
“The U.S. government has never done this in the past,” said Mary F. Robinson, president of the National Council for Adoption. “They are really going all out to expedite the process.”
Homeland Security Department officials said they were walking a fine line, trying to let in bona fide orphans without opening the floodgates to all children who have been separated from their parents.
“We remain focused on family unification and must be vigilant not to separate children from relatives in Haiti who are still alive but displaced, or to unknowingly assist criminals who traffic in children in such desperate times,” said Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the department.
The new policy, announced Monday night by Homeland Security Director, Janet Napolitano, affects only 900 children. The first group of 53 Haitian orphans arrived in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania played an instrumental role in bringing the first planeload of children out of Haiti, and the bureaucratic difficulties his team faced underscore the legal and moral complexities of transferring hundreds of children to a new country in the middle of a catastrophe that has crippled the Haitian government.
Advertisement
NowPublic on Facebook
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Crowd Power
Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
Related Stories
Recommendations (60)
mudricky
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Jordan Yerman
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Barry ORegan
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Spydermonkey
huntsville, Alabama, United States
158
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
snuffysmith
Washington D.C., D.C., United States
stejeb
United Kingdom
Jessica Tucker
Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada
Sudha Krishna
Vancouver, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (10)
at 03:55 on January 20th, 2010
Good story Rhonda, Canada has a similar policy.
at 04:16 on January 20th, 2010
Thank you, ACP. I'm glad to know that!
at 04:16 on January 20th, 2010
For the time being everything going in and out of Haiti is being controlled, which, for the time being should keep the lid on human trafficking.
There is no doubt evil in the world though and hopefully the powers to be keep an eye on this.
at 04:19 on January 20th, 2010
Thank you, ACP! I edited my comment, sorry! I'm a little distracted this morning:). Yes, hopefully the powers that be will keep a very close watch on human trafficking.
at 07:25 on January 20th, 2010
Thanks for posting this. Here's a link to another aspect of what's actually a wide-reaching story: the urge for care in expediting adoption procedures.
at 15:58 on January 20th, 2010
You are very welcome, Jordan! Thank you for the additional link and for the rec!
at 14:47 on January 21st, 2010
Helping Haiti and Doing Public Diplomacy – Philip Seib, Huffington Post (blog): “Public diplomacy involves a country reaching out directly to people, not to their government. This makes sense for a number of reasons in Haiti, and if it is done well in this case, there is no reason that this approach should not be tried more frequently elsewhere, without waiting for humanitarian emergencies.
The United States can afford mini-Marshall Plans where need is greatest throughout the world. Although USAID and other agencies do fine work, it is often overshadowed in the midst of the broad array of U.S. policy initiatives. That could be changed, and making such public diplomacy the true centerpiece of American foreign policy would change the way the United States looks at the world and, more important, would change how the world looks at America.” Image from
at 18:49 on January 22nd, 2010
This is a good policy. They need to be moved as soon as possible.
at 16:03 on January 27th, 2010
No, this is NOT good policy. The US does not have diplomatic carte blanche in Haiti and these children are NOT necessarily orphans. UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United National High Commissioner for Refugees, Save the Children and other organizations have called for a moratorium on adoptions during the emergency phase. Already at least 12 children evacuated to Pittsburgh on emergency medical grounds a) did NOT need medical treatment and b) are being placed in a group home. They may have, for all we know, parents in Haiti who don't know where they are. Do they have people who speak Creole looking after them? Do we know they are happier in a strange place with complete strangers? No adoption plans were in the works for these children. This is not the way to do things and this is how children get lost and trafficked and how people with good intentions make lives worse for people. There are all kinds of plans now to bring more children to the US before we even know if these children are indeed orphans and cutting corners is not the way to do this. There is a good reason the safeguards are in place and a good reason adoptions do take time.