One third of Haiti orphans 'kidnapped' by American church group still have parents



At least ten of the 33 children that an American church group tried to smuggle out of Haiti as orphans still have parents, it was revealed today.

One eight-year-old girl told aid workers that she thought her mother had arranged a short holiday for her and sobbed: ‘I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.’

The disturbing development emerged as ten U.S. Baptists were set to appear in court in Port-au-Prince accused of trying to take the children out of the earthquake-ravaged country without any proper documentation.

Benatine Poulime, 10, was one of the Haiti orphans who was taken by the American Christian group for overseas adoption

The would-be orphans were being cared for last night at the SOS Children’s Village in Santo on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, where they were taken at the weekend, hungry and dehydrated.

‘Today they are much better but still some of them are very, very sad because they’re waiting to be reunited with their parents,’ said George Willeit, a member of the charity’s emergency team.

Mr Willeit said at least ten of the children said they were not orphans. One of the smallest, just two or three months old, was so dehydrated she had to be taken to hospital.

‘One girl thought she was going to a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that,’ he added.

Child welfare groups also expressed outrage last night over the failed attempt to move the children to a hotel in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, where the group planned to build an orphanage.

Eight of the accused, including leader Laura Silsby (second from right), at police headquarters in Port-au-Prince

The aim of the Bapists was to eventually arrange adoptions for all the children with American parents.

Haitian Prime Minister Max Bellerive also spoke out denouncing the group’s ‘illegal trafficking of children'.

But the Americans, five women and five men from an Idaho church, claim they went to Haiti with good intentions.

Spokeswoman Laura Silsby conceded that amidst the chaos, she had not obtained the necessary documents to cross the border with the children, who were aged between two months and twelve-years-old.

She claimed she intended to return to complete the paperwork once the children were settled in their new home.

The Baptists’ ‘Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission’ was described as an effort to save abandoned, traumatised children.

Their plan was to scoop up 100 children from orphanages or the devastated streets of Port-au-Prince and bus them to a 45-room hotel at a beach resort in the Dominican Republic.

Some of the children suspected to have been taken by the charity. At least 10 of the 33 orphans still have children

They were in the process of buying land to build a more permanent orphanage to be called the New Life Children’s Refuge.

But the plan went awry on Saturday when the Americans were arrested after the children were discovered in a routine search of the bus at a border checkpoint.

The Baptists were being held at the police headquarters in the capital before a hearing in front of a judge scheduled for last night.



A lawyer acting for the group said they were being treated poorly and one of them, a diabetic, needed hospital treatment.

Lawyer Jorge Puello said they have been crammed in a small room and have not been given adequate food or medical care.

Since the January 12 earthquake, Haitian officials have been increasingly concerned that lost or parentless children are more vulnerable than ever to being kidnapped and sold by traffickers and the government has halted all adoptions unless they were in motion before the disaster.

‘The possibility of a child being scooped up and mistakenly labelled an orphan in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster is incredibly high,’ said Deb Barry, of Save the Children.

Drew Ham, a pastor at the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, where most of the group were parishioners, said last night: ‘From all accounts this is a paperwork issue. And the next thing our folks know, they’re being arrested.’

He insisted the children had been verified as orphans and had come from an established orphanage in Port-au-Prince, although he couldn’t provide the name.

He said the group had their mobile phones confiscated and he hasn’t been able to contact them.