Countries to fast-track Haiti adoption
Countries to fast-track Haiti adoptions
From correspondents in Paris From: AFP January 22, 2010 4:43AM
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COUNTRIES around the world are fast-tracking adoption processes to allow hundreds of Haitian children to be settled with new families after last week's earthquake, but the moves have attracted criticism.
Many foreign families who began adoption procedures before the quake have been desperately seeking news of their children since the catastrophe struck on January 12.
Others fear the necessary paperwork may be buried and lost forever in the rubble of buildings, stalling the process for good.
Leading charities have however urged an immediate moratorium on adoptions until extended efforts are made to trace and reunite the children with their relatives.
Britain's Save The Children and World Vision groups and the British Red Cross warned that if the adoptions are not stopped, there could be a risk of families being broken up forever.
"Taking children out of the country would permanently separate thousands of children from their families - a separation that would compound the acute trauma they are already suffering," said Jasmine Whitbread, Save The Children's chief executive.
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US and Dutch authorities were the first to take fast-tracking action.
Ninety-two Haitian children being adopted by Dutch families arrived in the Netherlands today, along with 14 heading for Luxembourg, while so far more than 50 Haitian orphans have landed in the United States, where they were immediately taken for medical check-ups.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed, "I am personally directing that we do everything we can to try to find and identify those children who are already adoptable ... and to try to expedite all the paperwork that has to be done to get them to their new home".
Spain, Belgium, Canada, France and Germany have also announced fast-tracking moves.
Spain's foreign ministry said it was "taking all possible steps so that Haitian minors who have been adopted by Spanish families can travel to Spain given the special conditions affecting Haiti".
Authorities in Belgium said the country was moving to speed up adoptions of 14 Haitian children dating back to before the quake, "even if the procedure is not yet finished".
The French government announced it would take in 276 children from Haiti who had been matched with French parents for adoption.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said there were 904 French families adopting children from Haiti and that the 276 coming to France soon were in the final stages of the process.
"We will repatriate them to France as quickly as possible, that is to say, immediately," Mr Kouchner told parliament.
At first, France had showed caution in speeding up the adoption processes, not wanting to be accused of "kidnapping".
In a sensitive case for France, six members of a French aid charity were convicted in 2007 of trying to bring in 103 Chadian children who they said were refugees from the war in Darfur.
Canada, which has one of the largest Haitian diasporas in the world, topping 100,000, said regular processing fees will be waived and the federal government will cover any immediate health costs.
"I have directed my officials to issue temporary permits, which is an extraordinary measure, to allow these children to enter Canada as quickly as possible", Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said.
In Germany, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said today the first youngsters could arrive in the country in the coming days under a new "fast, unbureaucratic and humane" policy, agreed with the Haitian government.
However the Federal Office for Foreign Adoption in the western city of Bonn said the policy only applied to some 30 children whose applications were already accepted or "very far along" in the vetting process.
The Haitian government said at least 75,000 people died in the quake, while 250,000 were injured and a million left homeless. Some officials have spoken of a final death toll as high as 200,000.
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