CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_americans_detained

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The new lawyer for 10 American Baptists charged with child kidnapping said Monday he believes they had paperwork to take 33 children out of the country after Haiti's devastating earthquake.

Attorney Aviol Fleurant's remarks came as investigators questioned the Baptist group's leader, Laura Silsby, who insisted she is innocent of any wrongdoing.

. . .

At least 20 of the 33 children had living parents. Some of those parents told The Associated Press they gave the kids to the group because the missionaries promised to educate them at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and said they would allow parents to visit.

"Many of the parents who had the opportunity to speak out declared, in good faith, to have given their children to the Americans," Fleurant said.

"I also believe, really believe_ and I don't want to break the gag order from the court — that the Americans have a document, from somebody, an authorization to take the children with them."

Man it's like you can't even illegally take children to another country these days or something!

Just kidding. That was seriously a joke so please nobody start arguing with that, especially since as the article states, at the moment it isn't even clear if they had the authority or not (and they actually might).

The reason this is a problem is because Haiti kind of has a history of kids being abducted and used as slaves or worse (or sold to other families) and so there were fears that shady individuals would use the chaos from the earthquake to more easily take children out of the country in the name of humanitarian aid. Obviously I don't think these missionaries were doing that, but they got on the wrong side of those fears.

Anyway prayer would probably be good for them, I think. They had the right idea but may have been misguided, or they may have just gotten unlucky with some paperwork being lost or misdirected. Either way I'm sure it's tough for them.

Wow, it's so crazy what miscommunication can do. I will definitely be praying for this situation.

I'll be praying as well.

*sigh* I've read several articles about this over the last several days. I've read and heard things all of which pointed to lack of planning, lack of forethought, and general incompetence. The people didn't know what they were doing... and then once they found out, didn't know when to call it quits.

All I can do is pray... both for the children involved, and the people who did it. Maybe those baptists will make it through this and come out a little smarter. I'm Baptist too, btw. I'm not dissing the denomination. I'm not dissing the people who did that, either, just saying that they bit off more than they could chew... and they didn't even read the rules first.

What they did could be considered "child trafficking". Did they even thought about that before they started? I'm beginning to wonder if they were some of those people who decided "Screw the rules, we'll just pray about it and no matter what we do, God will guide us through it." Now, sure, God does miracles. Never said he didn't. But seriously... 'Protecting us from our own stupidity' isn't always covered. There's a difference between doing God's will and just following The Voices.

...Just pray for these people. They need it.

RidleyofZebes (post: 1372590) wrote: Now, sure, God does miracles. Never said he didn't. But seriously... 'Protecting us from our own stupidity' isn't always covered.

Man, then I'm out of luck.

But in all seriousness, I think these folks do know now they made a mistake and they will probably pay fully for it; but God will still be with them every step of the way if they put their trust in Him.
I'll be praying for them.

Well, by the time it's over we'll have some proffessionals in legit border crossing!

So far as I've heard, there was no paperwork (as there wasn't really an organized immigration office in port au prince at the time and they just... didn't think to wait until they could sort it out). I suspect they'll be fully charged, tried and convicted as what they did is essentially indefensible.

Haiti already had severe child trafficking issues and the earthquake fears made it much easier for trafficking to occur in the minds of both international watchdog groups and the Haitian government, and convicting these people will most likely make sure that people know that the law is still being enforced in the country, despite the damage.

Just makes me wonder what the heck they were thinking.

Authorisation or not, (without knowing too much about this case) I don't think it's that wise to move the children to a different country. It's quite disruptive for them - leaving the people/town/land they knew. There's lots of children already in Haiti, so it would probably be better to help establish a school there or something.

Actually moving the kids isn't a big issue, since the orphanages that are still standing are overflowing. They are planning on building schools and stuff, but they're pretty far down the list in areas that were 90% leveled, since housing and medical issues are actually a more pressing situation than education. That, and in many cases the places where the kids came from were just where everybody except them died, family and friends alike, or no food was available. Not much left to know or stay there for really.

The problem is the manner in which it was enacted, without patience or regard for any sort of laws, national or international.

I also don't think the fact that the families said "Yeah, we gave them permission to take our kids!" will hold up in court because a child trafficker could do the same thing, pretend to be a missionary and promise to take the kids to a better life somewhere else. So parental consent really doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of whether what they did was illegal or not.

Nate (post: 1372762) wrote:I also don't think the fact that the families said "Yeah, we gave them permission to take our kids!" will hold up in court because a child trafficker could do the same thing, pretend to be a missionary and promise to take the kids to a better life somewhere else. So parental consent really doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of whether what they did was illegal or not.

Yeah, their status as missionaries is actually sort of unimportant legally, since they can't really just say that and expect it to be a good excuse. I'm sure plenty of child traffickers have already tried that excuse out before the earthquake.

Haiti judge says missionaries should be freed

[color="Red"][font="Book Antiqua"]Col. Roy Mustang[/font][/color]