Call for halt to new child adoptions in Haiti

Save the Children are calling for an immediate halt to all new adoptions of Haitian children affected by the disaster. Efforts should focus on reuniting children who have lost their parents with extended families, rather than adopting them out of the country.

All the agencies of the Disasters Emergency Committee, of which Save the Children is a member, are calling for an immediate moratorium on any new adoptions of children left on their own until full extended family tracing and reunification has been completed.

Any hasty new adoptions would risk permanently breaking up families, causing long-term damage to already vulnerable children, and could distract from aid efforts in Haiti. Experience in such major emergencies shows that most children currently struggling to survive on their own will have living family members and efforts must be concentrated on finding them.

Adoptions already in process should go ahead, as long as the appropriate legal documentation is in place and the adoptions meet Haitian and international law.

“Taking children out of the country would permanently separate thousands of children from their families — a separation that would compound the acute trauma they are already suffering and inflict long-term damage on their chances of recovery,” said Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children’s Chief Executive.

“People wanting to help protect vulnerable children in Haiti will make the most difference by giving to agencies working to reunite children with their families and supporting relatives to care for them long-term,” Whitbread continued.

Save the Children has teams on the ground in Haiti identifying lone children, and is launching an emergency family tracing and reunification programme to reunite families and help put in place long-term support for their care.

DEC members, including Save the Children, also strongly discourage western governments from moving large numbers of children out of Haiti unless essential for medical reasons. If children are taken for treatment, the evacuating authorities must make sure that they have a caregiver or parents with them, and proper records are kept of their whereabouts so they can be reunited with relatives when they are physically better.

Save the Children also call on the Government of Haiti to develop a policy on separated and unaccompanied children, providing clear guidelines on how to respond to this issue. This policy should draw on the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children and the UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusion on Children at Risk.

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