Fri Sep 21 06:22:57 200717

Fetching...
 
YOU ARE HERE: Homepage > Newsdesk > Article
Haiti children leave "rogue" adoption centre
10 Aug 2007 14:49:03 GMT
Source: Reuters
GENEVA, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Forty-seven children in Haiti have been reunited with their parents after being kept in inhumane conditions at an adoption centre for up to two years, an international aid agency said on Friday.

Now aged two to seven years, the children were "given away" by their parents in return for promises that they would receive good care and the families would get financial assistance to set up small businesses and meet their other children's needs, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

The children were kept at a "rogue centre" in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, ostensibly awaiting international adoption, for a period ranging from six months to two years.

Many were stunted from malnutrition and had skin diseases due to poor care, IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya said.

After learning of the conditions the children were kept in, and realising they had been misled, the parents denounced the centre's owner and won a judgment ordering their release this week.

"IOM and the Pan American Development Foundation have just returned 47 trafficked children back to their homes and their parents in the town of Jeremie in Haiti's Grande Anse region," Pandya told a news briefing in Geneva.

The children were considered "trafficked" as they had been put in an exploitative situation, she said.

At least another 40 children from a different town remained at the centre as authorities had yet to start proceedings to have them returned home, the spokeswoman said.

A lack of resources in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has prevented social welfare authorities from investigating all international adoption centres, she said.

The Geneva-headquartered IOM is providing the released children with medical and psychological care, paying their school fees for a year, and giving the parents cash and training to help them care for their large families.
AlertNet news is provided by

Delicio.us  |   Digg  |   NewsVine  |   Reddit                                                                                  Permalink


Chart for Human development index ranking
Dodgy buns put 260 Chinese children in hospital
Medical journal hits U.N. agencies on health data
Kenya saving children's lives with bed nets-study
China: Tibetan Schoolboys Detained as Crackdown Worsens
Bush, Dems battle over kids' health care
UN International Day of Peace
Camps build peace over a tense summer
World Vision reports on short-medium term needs; following flood response trip to North Korea.
One family describes their fear as home collapses in on them during recent heavy floods in DPRK.
Rewrite the Future - One Year On
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2007-09-20T101357Z_01_TAI107_RTRIDSP_2_TAIWAN-CHILDREN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/TAI107.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2007-09-20T101310Z_01_TAI106_RTRIDSP_2_TAIWAN-CHILDREN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/TAI106.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2007-09-20T101225Z_01_TAI104_RTRIDSP_2_TAIWAN-CHILDREN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/TAI104.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2007-09-18T073937Z_01_SIN901_RTRIDSP_2_INDONESIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/SIN901.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2007-09-16T101154Z_01_DHA01D_RTRIDSP_2_BANGLADESH_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/DHA01D.htm

A primary school student jumps during a physical education class in Taipei September 20, 2007. Taiwan children are getting shorter and educators believe study pressures, poor diet and too little sleep are partly to blame.



URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10350968.htm

For our full disclaimer and copyright information please visit http://www.alertnet.org