DÉRACINÉS01:42 Some 2000 children leave every year to be adopted in France, Canada, or Switzerland.

© Crédit photo | Suffering: Only yesterday, the International Organisation of Migration in Geneva announced that a week after the rescuing of 47 children from an illegal creche in Haiti, hundred other children are still in this centre. From the ones who could be taken out of the crèche, ten are still in hospital. They suffer from malnutrition and contagious skin diseases. This picture was taken in Port au Prince, in  Maison de l’Espérance, a crèche kept by a Swiss woman, Cécile Gabathuler.PORT-AU-PRINCE, JUILLET 2007 |

Some hotels are known to welcome diplomats, others lodge humanitarians. The Kinam, in Port--au-Prince, specialised in adoptive parents. Every day, at breakfast and lunch, tables are taken by new families. 

Getting out of misery

Watched by the softened eyes of her husband, Karine covers Jonah with loud hugs, as if recovering lost time. «We only have him since yesterday», explains the young French woman.  Next to her, Sylvie, single, tries in vain to ease up Kesny: «It is normal that he is impressed, I got him only an hour ago. It will be better tomorrow.» All of them congratulate themselves with their action: withdraw a child from misery.

In the office of Unicef, on another hill of the capital, there is another discourse : «Before, it was about finding a parent for a child, today one has to find children for parents. What is missing is the catalogue, argues Njanja Fassu, responsible for the Department for Child Protection.

Joséphine runs a crèche near Hotel Kinam. She withdraws her eyes for a moment from the TV, a very small child is at her side: «You want what? Girl, boy, 6 months, 1 year? You ask, and we find it.»

In view of the UN agency, the borderline between traffic and adoption is at least porous. Certain «orphanages» go as far as harvesting in the villages. Others leave biological mothers to believe they will see their little ones again. «Most babies are not abandoned, but brought by their mothers. They often come to take news on their children.  «Many hope to receive money from their child placed with foreigners», argues Cécile Gabathuler, a Swiss woman who runs a crèche in the Haitian capital since 10 years.

Full Adoption

When Haiti only knows simple adoptions, the European countries impose a full procedure. The child benefits from the same rights as the biological child, but it cuts all official link with its country and his original parents. «They make families sign for consent, but most of them are analphabetic, I doubt if they realise what they sign.», complains Léon Saint-Louis, former lawyer specialised in adoptions.

5000 to 10'000 dollars

Apart from the violation of international law, many cases are in contradiction with the local law, dated from 1974 and that stipulates that adopters need to be at least 35 years, married since 10 years and not have biological children. However in between five and twelve Haitians go to Switzerland every year (read the box).

«Everyone is part of this system, denounces Njanja Fassu: the crèches, the lawyers, the administration and the governments of the adopters, who form a powerful lobby. When one knows that 2000 to 2500 children leave Haiti every year – half of them for France – and that an adoption agency brings between 5000 and 10 000 dollars, one sees well that many have an interest to continue this.»

«We do not really have means to fight this, pleads Edwine Casseus, director of the social services IBSR, who formalises adoptions in Haiti. We only intervene at the and of the chaine, after everything has been arranged by the crèches and the lawyers.»

«More than six years» excluded

In the garden of the crèche kept by Cécile Gabathuler, some 150 toddlers grasp the legs of the visitors with the same mantra: «Mama, take me with you!» The same quest to women and men.

Port-au-Prince is full of these baby homes with revealing names : Horizon de l’Espoir, Coin des Cieux, Cœur de Lumière… And while some have as mission to welcome and raise the needy toddlers, many are just doing business. They never house unhealthy or underfed children. Nor those older than 6 years. They often have internet sites full with good intentions and touchy stories about the misery of the Caribbean children. One also finds pictures and a table with tariffs. Some propose even to ‘deliver’ the babies at the airport nearest to your house.