In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti last month, adoption agencies have been flooded with calls from people wanting to adopt orphaned kids. Angelina Jolie, normally a vocal advocate for adoption, is asking people to wait.

"An emergency is not the time for new adoptions in any way," Jolie said in a Feb. 14 interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN. "Child trafficking has been a huge problem for a very long time. Everybody that means well needs to really take that very seriously."

Jolie and husband Brad Pitt were rumored to be considering adoption of a Haitian child prior to the earthquake. Both denied the rumor, and Jolie is now urging people interested in adopting Haitian children to exercise caution and patience.

Labels: haiti

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Mia Farrow, who serves a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, has spoken out against illegal adoptions that have occurred in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

A Feb. 4 Associated Press highlighted Farrow's criticisms:

The U.S. actress says groups or individuals who want to help Haiti's children should rather support orphanages or their families inside the country.

Farrow, who herself has adopted 11 children, says offering parents a better life for their children elsewhere is "completely unacceptable and immoral."

Adoption practices in Haiti are in the spotlight since a group of American missionaries was caught trying to smuggle Haitian children out of the country in the wake of the Jan. 12 quake.

Labels: international, haiti, illegal adoptions

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The devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti has prompted many good-hearted people to inquire about adopting children who were orphaned in the disaster. It also left many adoptions in limbo, as the Haitian government tried to sort itself out.

On Feb. 1, MSNBC ran a special feature aimed at addressing some of the more common concerns, such as the following question:

Are there any new adoptions being started for children who were already orphaned or children newly orphaned in Haiti?

Reputable adoption agencies would tell you that neither the State Department nor Haitis government are considering new adoption applications at this time. Their primary concern is the safety of children who may have been separated from surviving relatives and need time to be reunited with extended family.

Only adoptions that were already in process will be completed. Neither the U.S. State Department nor the Haitian government has publicly speculated about when new adoptions can be initiated.

Labels: international, haiti

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As images of a devastated Haiti flood into the U.S., telephone calls are flooding into adoption agencies. But homes and families weren't the only things ruined by the earthquake, as KATU.com writers Susan Harding and Meghan Kalkstein reported in a Jan. 26 article:

Even before the earthquake, Haiti was considered one of the most challenging countries for adoption because of red tape and an unstable and corrupt government. ...

Adoption agency officials say people who are now flooding local agencies with calls may not have any idea what obstacles they'll encounter.

No one right now is accepting applications for adoptions because of the collapse of the (Haitian) government," said Hollen Frazier of All God's Children International.

She said she believes it will be a year before Haiti will begin to allow adoptions again and then the wait may be up to three years.

"I would just encourage people to keep the orphan in their foresight with the understanding we have orphans throughout the entire world," she said.

Labels: international, haiti

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Dozens of Haitian children have arrived in Pittsburgh, on the heels of U.S. policy changes for visa requirements aimed at expediting adoption of Haitian orphanages. The new policy will affect about 900 children, all of whom had already been identified as orphans. But aid groups estimate that tens of thousands of children could have been orphaned in the recent earthquake.

"It normally takes three years to adopt a child from Haiti, because of a lengthy process required under Haitian law," the New York Times reported Jan. 20. "The Haitian government has had reason to be cautious; there are about 200 orphanages in Haiti, but United Nations officials say not all are legitimate. Some are fronts for traffickers who buy children from their parents and sell them to couples in other countries."

The change in U.S. policy will speed up the process for Haitian children whose adoptions have already begun but have yet to be finalized. A spokesman for U.S. Homeland Security told the Times that the department is walking a fine line -- trying to assist children who are truly orphans without separating children from relatives who are still alive.

Labels: haiti, adoption_laws

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An international organization known as the Adoptees of Color Roundtable has issued a statement calling for a stoppage on adoptions from Haiti and a refocused effort on connecting children with their families and providing all necessary aid to help Haitians rebuild after the recent earthquake that devastated their nation.

The following are excerpts from this statement:

We are a community of scholars, activists, professors, artists, lawyers, social workers and health care workers who speak with the knowledge that North Americans and Europeans are lining up to adopt the "orphaned children" of the Haitian earthquake, and who feel compelled to voice our opinion about what it means to be "saved" or "rescued" through adoption."

We understand that in a time of crisis there is a tendency to want to act quickly to support those considered the most vulnerable and directly affected, including children. However, we urge caution in determining how best to help. ...

For more than fifty years "orphaned children" have been shipped from areas of war, natural disasters, and poverty to supposedly better lives in Europe and North America. ... Like us, these "disaster orphans" will grow into adulthood and begin to grasp the magnitude of the abuse, fraud, negligence, suffering, and deprivation of human rights involved in their displacements. ...

As adoptees of color we bear a unique understanding of the trauma, and the sense of loss and abandonment that are part of the adoptee experience, and we demand that our voices be heard. All adoptions from Haiti must be stopped and all efforts to help children be refocused on giving aid to organizations working toward family reunification and caring for children in their own communities.

Labels: international, haiti

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Jill Lear and Kim Lewen both have rooms ready and waiting for children who may not occupy them for months. Both women have been in the process of adopting children from Haiti, which was devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake Jan. 12.

"Though both know their children are safe ... what they don't know is when they'll be able to proceed with their dream of bringing the children to the United States. They fear for their children's safety in the days to come, and that their months-long effort to adopt the children could be stalled by the chaos." (Source: The Associated Press)

Dozens of families have been left in limbo, worried not only about the safety of their adopted children, but also about the paperwork which often takes months to sort out and may now be buried underneath the rubble. On Jan. 14, adoption advocates gathered on Capitol Hill to determine the best way forward.

Labels: international, haiti

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The Haitian government has dramatically slowed its transportation of Haitian orphans to the U.S., amid fears that undocumented children may be victims of human trafficking.

"Haiti's prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, told the Miami Herald his government has considerable fears that children may be scooped up in the streets of Port-au-Prince by nongovernmental organizations. The government also has concerns that children may be trafficked into prostitution or slavery." [Source: The Palm Beach Post]

Lawyers and adoption agencies have been working around the clock to finalize paperwork on as many children as possible, the Post reported. Most agencies are also re-processing paperwork for potential adoptive parents, including a background check, to ensure they are legitimate.

Labels: international, haiti

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Celebrity pop singer Robbie Williams has stated publicly that he wants to adopt an orphan from Haiti. He visited the earthquake-ravaged country earlier this year, and the trip filled him with “instant guilt,” he says.

The trip left him longing to help an orphaned youngster – and the star admits he and fiancée Ayda Field are now considering adoption. He says, "I went with UNICEF and it is by far the worst place I’ve ever visited. I wanted to adopt straight away." [Source: ContactMusic.com]

It’s a sentiment shared by hundreds of people, who have flooded adoption agencies with inquiries about adopting kids from Haiti. In an effort to ensure kids’ safety, however, the Haitian Government enacted new procedures for existing adoption cases, and announced a temporary moratorium on new adoption requests.

 

Labels: haiti, celebrity

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