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Thousands of Children Orphaned or Separated from Their Families in Haiti Earthquake Aftermath |
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| Friday, 22 January 2010 06:19 |
Women’s Refugee Commission urges these children be provided protection in Haiti while reunification efforts are madeNOTE:
However, the Women’s Refugee Commission has heard numerous accounts of children being removed from Haiti who were not in the final stages of adoption and who do not meet the Department of Homeland Security’s current criteria for evacuation. Such reports are deeply troubling because in many cases they run contrary to the best interest of the children. Despite a well-intentioned desire to assist children during a time of crisis, protective mechanisms must be established and respected to ensure that children who can be reunited with family are able to do so and that unsafe adoptions and trafficking of children do not occur. • Protection in-country: Foreign governments, nongovernmental organizations and concerned individuals must support the efforts of the United Nations and international organizations to meet the protection needs of children in-country. • Temporary Evacuation as a Last Resort: If children must be evacuated out of Haiti because their protection needs cannot be met in-country, the evacuation must be carefully documented, they must be registered with the proper authorities and all efforts must be made to reunify them with family before any adoption proceedings are considered. • Children with urgent medical needs: Children with needs that cannot be addressed by the emergency medical care delivery efforts in Haiti should be transported to the U.S. or wherever they are able to access appropriate medical care. Available family members should be allowed to travel with them. • Children in mixed family status: There are mixed status families in Haiti in which one or more member has authorization to legally enter the United States but others do not. These families are being forced to choose between leaving their children behind because they lack the proper authorization, or remaining in Haiti. The U.S. must allow mixed status families to enter the United States together. • Expedite I-730s for Haitian refugees and asylees: Refugees and asylees in the U.S. have the right to bring a spouse or unmarried children under the age of 21 into the U.S. under the I-730 Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition. This process should be expedited for all Haitian refugees and asylees in the U.S. so that their children and spouses can reach the safety of the U.S. more quickly. • Children interdicted at sea: These children should be properly screened, in compliance with international law, to ensure their lives are not in danger if they are returned. |
In the News
| Haiti: Remembering the Needs of People with Disabilities February 10, 2010 Director of protection, Dale Buscher, discusses the urgent need to include people with disabilities in Haiti's emergency response and reconstruction efforts in an article on Huffington Post. |
| Haiti 'orphan' rescue mission: Adoption or child trafficking? February 4, 2010 This weekend's arrest of 10 members of an Idaho-based Baptist charity for trying to take 33 Haitian children across the border with the Dominican Republic without proper paperwork has become an international incident. Read more |
Op-eds, Letters & Articles
| Needs of Haitian Children in Washington Post January 30, 2010 In a letter to the editor, Michelle Brane, director of our detention and asylum program, and Wendy Young, executive director of KIND, talk about the needs of Haitian children following the earthquake in Haiti. Read the letter as it appeared in the Washington Post (It's the second letter). |
| Haiti: Women and Girls at Risk January 30, 2010 Haiti: Women and Girls at Risk. Read Carolyn's Makinson's article on the Huffington Post on reproductive health needs following the earthquake. |
Journal Articles
| Hope and Opportunities for Young People September 4, 2009 Forced Migration Review, September 2009 issue Jenny Perlman Robinson, senior program officer, children and youth, and Shogufa Alpar, program coordinator, write about displaced young people's needs for education and training in marketable skills. |
| Refugee Livelihoods, Refugee Lives June 16, 2009 Monday Developments magazine, June 2009 issue Dale Buscher, director of protection at the Women's Refugee Commission, writes about the need to create opportunities for the displaced to help themselves. |




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