Mission workers detained for child trafficking

The story from MSNBC below highlights the vulnerability of Haitian children, and the country as a whole, during this time. I am certain that this article does not tell the whole story, and I'm willing to believe that these folks had good intentions. But the entire plan sounds unethical and poorly thought-out PORT-AU-PRINCE - Ten American Baptists were being held in the Haitian capital Sunday after trying take 33 children out of Haiti at a time of growing fears over possible child trafficking. The director of the charity now watching the children told NBC News that one child said she still had parents and was only expecting a brief vacation. He added that a policeman believed the group was trying to sell the children for $10,000 each, an allegation denied by the church members. "As far as we know they would have been, I say it clearly, sold for $10,000 each," said Georg Willeit, who runs the SOS Children's Village outside Port-au-Prince. "That's what one of the policemen told us. Every child was very desperate, hungry, thirsty. They all were in a bad condition." "One of the elder girls told us, 'I'm not an orphan. I still have my parents,'" he added. "She thought she was going on a summer holiday vacation given by friendly people from America and the Dominican Republic." The church members, most from Idaho, said they were trying to rescue abandoned and traumatized children. But officials said they lacked the proper documents when they were arrested Friday night in a bus along with children from 2 months to 12 years old who had survived the catastrophic earthquake. The group said its "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" was an effort to help abandoned children by taking them to an orphanage across the border in the Dominican Republic. "In this chaos the government is in right now we were just trying to do the right thing," the group's spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, told The Associated Press at the judicial police headquarters in the capital, where the Americans were being held pending a Monday hearing before a judge. No charges had been filed, though Haiti's national secretary for security, Aramick Louis, said a judge had already done a preliminary investigation into the case. Prime Minister Max Bellerive told The Associated Press Sunday he was outraged by the group's "illegal trafficking of children" in a country long afflicted by the scourge and by foreign meddling. But the hard reality on the ground in this desperately poor country especially after the catastrophic Jan. 12 quake ח is that some parents openly attest to their willingness to part with their children if it will mean a better life. It was a sentiment expressed by all but one of some 20 Haitian parents interviewed at a tent camp Sunday that teemed with children whose toys were hewn from garbage. "Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners," said Adonis Helman, 44. "I've been thinking how I will choose which one I may give probably my youngest." [url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35162046/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/]Baptist group denies trafficking in Haitian kids - Haiti earthquake- msnbc.com[/url]