After the U.S. made a heroic effort to help the people of Haiti recover from their recent major earthquake, events on the ground have taken an odd turn. Even after millions of dollars in aid money was donated by American citizens, corporations and the federal government, and direct on-the-ground help from private U.S. aid groups and the U.S. military, it seems that some U.S. efforts are looked on with suspicion. How else to interpret the recent arrest of Baptist missionaries trying to save Haitian children? According to this report in Time Magazine, this group of American missionaries has been charged with child kidnapping and criminal association. Right, I’m sure this Baptist missionary group was really a front for a cabal of child traffickers. I would assume that the Haitian authorities have the discretion to deport the Americans if they wanted to, and yet they choose to jail them. After having examined the initial U.S. response to the Haitian earthquake disaster for this blog, I’m incredulous at the idea of American citizens sitting in jail for trying to help the children of Haiti. I’m not sure what is going on here, what is motivating this action by the suddenly functioning Haitian government, but this actions seems a tad, well, ungrateful.
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5 Comments So Far»
Joel - Let’s look at this from the Haitian perspective. It looks like a group of missionaries came into their country and, under false pretenses attempted to take children out of the country without documentation. If an American prosecutor were faced with this set of facts, would they simply deport the group ? I doubt it. Had a similar incident occurred in the aftermath of Katrina, they would have done exactly what the Haitian prosecutors did - have them held pending judicial review - and with popular backing.
There are right ways and wrong ways of helping the Haitians. This is the wrong way and it appears that at least one member of the group knew it. A New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/world/americas/05orphans.html) pointed out “Ms. Silsby had made her intentions known to child protection officials, human rights experts and Dominican authorities in Haiti, all of whom warned her that she could be charged with trafficking if she tried to take children out of the country without proper documentation.”
Kidnapping? No. But trying to take 30 children without any documentation, permission, authority, or any other bit of paperwork out of the country is still wrong regardless of what is happening. Just because there is a crisis, the country is in shambles and there is chaos every where you look doesn’t mean you have the right to take children off the street to where ever you want. One child thought she was going to a summer camp and her parents were still living. She said she wasn’t an orphan and her parents were able to provide for her.
Donating millions of dollars and helping during a crisis still doesn’t give anyone the right to pick up children and claim them orphans. One woman from the group even stated she thought in a time of crisis you didn’t have to have documentation or any other paperwork to pick up orphans. No one would do this during Katrina or any other disaster in the U.S., so we certainly aren’t justified doing it in another country based on how much aid, money, food, water, and other supplies we have provided.
Eileen and Derek, thank you for your comments.
Eileen, I see your point, and as that news report you linked to notes, there is evidence that the leader of the group did a great disservice to the volunteers she was “leading” in the rescue effort. She comes across as deceptive and willful and not at all professional. From what I understand, the group is not a licensed or accredited humanitarian organization.
Derek, I agree, donations don’t give Americans license to do whatever they want to.
My point was that if the Haitian government wanted to simply deport that entire group of Americans, rather than jail them, they could do that. I think it would be a nice gesture of gratitude for all the assistance provided by American aid organizations and volunteers.
Wow, advocating the violation of sovereign laws by Americans, and engaging in child trafficking under the guise of “religion.” You’ve reached new lows intellectually. See the article below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/world/americas/12haiti.html?ref=world
Legal Advisor representing Jailed “Missionaries” WANTED IN FOUR COUNTRIES FOR CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/world/americas/16haiti.html?ref=americas
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