SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The arrest of 10-Americans for trying to take children out of Haiti without permission had cast a shadow on all foriegn relief groups working with Haitian orphanages.
The 10 were missionaries from two Baptist churches in Idaho - one in Meridian and the other Twin Falls. They were arrested over the weekend at the border between Haiti and The Dominican Republican. When asked for documentation on the children, they had no passports or adoption paperwork, only a letter from a Haitian minister.
Members of the "New Life Children's Refuge" rescue mission claimed that all of the children were orphans. Laura Silsby, a spokesperson for the group, said, "We came here to Haiti to help the children that have no one, children who have no mother or father, no hope of having someone to care for them." But another spokesman for the ophanage where the children are now being sheltered claims that half of them are not orphans. George Willeit of SOS Chidlren's Villages said, "One (8-year old) girl was crying, saying, 'I am not an orphan. I still have my parents."
Haitian Prime Minister Max Bellerive denounced the group calling them "kidnappers" engaged in the "illegal trafficking of children."
Utahns who have been working on Haitian adoptions for many years fear the anger over this group's actions will spill onto their efforts. "I can not think what they were thinking," said Kathy Junk of Wasatch International Adoptions. "I'm sure they have a good heart, but it is hard to fathom that nobody would think you have to have paperwork to take a child out of the country."
Junk points to the many Utahns who pulled off the evacuation of 66 orphans from Haiti last Friday. She said their efforts were extraordinary -- even heroic -- but they were also within the rules. Junk said, "I look at Sheryl Moyes, and she was over there for 9 days. Sleeping in the orphanage outside, taking care of the babies, and standing for hours in front of the embassy -- all to do it correctly. She crossed every t and dotted every i."
She hopes the victory of Sheryl and others will not be blunted by the actions of some who did not play by the rules.
