February 1, 2010

Baptists arrested for ‘abducting’ Haitian orphans


by David Masters

Ten American Christians who attempted to take dozens of orphaned children out of earthquake-devastated Haiti have been arrested at the country’s border.

The group, which is mostly made up of Baptist Christians from Idaho, were arrested after it was discovered they didn’t have the proper documents to take the children out of Haiti.

The team travelled from the US to Haiti after the quake on a “Haitian orphan rescue mission”.

The orphans they were attempting to take to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic were aged between two months and 12 years.

A statement from two Baptist Churches in Idaho who organised the mission, reads: “The children were being taken to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic where they could be cared for and have their medical and emotional needs attended to.

“Our team was falsely arrested and we are doing everything we can from this end to clear up the misunderstanding that has occurred in Port-au-Prince.”

A spokesperson for the group said they were “trying to do the right thing” in a devastated country.

Haitian Prime Minister Max Bellerive said he was “outraged” by the actions of the group, which he denounced as the “illegal trafficking of children”.

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