exposing the dark side of adoption
Register Log in

Haiti: Ordeal of Children Victims of Trafficking for International Adoption Revealed

public

Migration in the Americas

A group of 47 children victims of trafficking were returned by IOM and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) to their homes in the impoverished district of Grand Anse in south-west Haiti, where IOM will provide follow-on care and assistance.

Aged between two and seven years of age, the children had been taken from their home town of Jeremie to Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince where they were kept at a rogue center awaiting international adoption for periods ranging from six months to two years.

One week after their rescue more disturbing details surfaced about the condition of the children.

According to officials of Haiti’s Social Well-Being and Research Institute (IBERS by its French acronym), the government agency that oversees legal adoption in the country, some 100 children remain in the crèche waiting to be rescued and are in urgent need of medical assistance. The agency’s limited financial means are hampering the immediate rescue of those left behind.

The 48 rescued in mid August were found by IBERS officials in conditions of extreme neglect; most were suffering from malnutrition, severe diarrhea, dehydration, and skin diseases.

Ten children remain hospitalized receiving treatment for malnutrition and contagious dermatological conditions. Most of the children will require long term psychological support to overcome the trauma of the physical abuse and the separation from their families. Some children have been further affected following the separation from their siblings; 11 brothers and sisters of the rescued children are still at the center.

Many parents had difficulties recognizing their children, “He was in such a state of neglect; it’s as if I will need to bury my child,” said a father after seeing the condition of his child.

Father cries after seeing the condition of his child (IOM 2007)

One government official revealed that during an unannounced visit made a few days before the rescue, the children were hidden in the basement, frightened and filthy. Neighbors have confirmed that they often heard children crying.

In a statement to a local radio station, one of the presumed traffickers said that when the imminent rescue of the children was announced, those working at the crèche restricted the amount of food and other basic care normally given to the children.

IOM and the Pan-American Development Foundation (PADF), in coordination with Haitian authorities, assisted in the return of the children to their homes in Jeremie, an isolated district in the south west of Haiti.

IOM is also providing financial support for the immediate medical and psychological care and for reintegration assistance to the children and their parents. The educational fees of school-aged children will also be paid for one year while parents will be given micro-grants and training to set up small businesses to ease financial worries during the initial period of return.

IOM and IBERS provide parents with micro credit assistance (IOM 2007)

IOM is urgently seeking additional funding in order to support Haitian authorities in their efforts to rescue the rest of the children, to provide long-term reintegration assistance to the children and the impoverished families and to raise awareness amongst the general population in Jeremie, a region particularly affected by this practice.

Geslet Bordes, manager of IOM’s program to provide assistance to children victims of trafficking said, “If urgent sensitization measures are not carried out in the region, there is a risk that destitute parents will continue to give their children away and these ruthless traffickers will continue to thrive in Haiti’s more destitute areas.”

Jeremie is one of the most impoverished regions of Haiti. Many families have between six and eight children and the parents are unable to meet the most basic needs such as food, healthcare and education.

Joel Jean Baptiste, Regional Director of Social Affairs in Jeremie, denounced the practice of trafficking in the region and called on parents not to be accomplices in the trafficking of their children.

Since 2005, IOM has assisted with the return and re-integration of 121 children victims of trafficking in Haiti with funding from the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). Th is IOM program also carries out family tracing, evaluation and reunification, educational/vocational support in addition to giving micro-enterprise grants to parents/caretakers to prevent re-trafficking. Where family reunification is not possible, children are placed in shelters.

IOM has also received funding from the Government of Canada and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to enhance counter-trafficking law enforcement capacity and provide assistance to children victims of trafficking in volatile areas respectively.

For more information, please contact Geslet Bordes at IOM Port au Prince, Tel: +509 244 1218; 490 0505; gbordes@iom.int

www.iom.int
2007 Sep 1