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Baptist Group Accused of Child Trafficking

danarhea

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The White House announced late Sunday that the U.S. military will resume its medical evacuation flights from Haiti tonight. Meanwhile in Haiti, the local government is holding 10 Baptists from the United States who tried to take dozens of children across the border to the Dominican Republic, as CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.

Their intentions were good. They were only taking the children to the neighboring Dominican Republic, and only wanted to help.

A lot of people want to help Haitian citizens, but many go there without knowing the rules. I might suggest that those who wish to provide assistance take some training, so situations like this might be avoided in the future. Meanwhile, I will pray for their release, and give them a big thumbs up, in spite of their not knowing what they were doing. They still represented America's values well. Yes, Americans DO care.

Article is here.
 
I hate reading stories like this. I know these people only had the best intentions for the children and were looking best interests. But now because they didn't fully understand the rules their help acts, which I fully support, may be darkened by their lack of knowledge.
 
They should have known better. I mean you cannot simply go into Hati, fill a bus with kids and drive out. It would be like a pedo freaks dream!

I am leary of these people simply because you would think they would have done their research and gotten info. before they even tried this. Something about this does not sit well with me.
 
They should have known better. I mean you cannot simply go into Hati, fill a bus with kids and drive out. It would be like a pedo freaks dream!

I am leary of these people simply because you would think they would have done their research and gotten info. before they even tried this. Something about this does not sit well with me.

I can understand how this may not sit well with people, but at the same time I just have a hard time seeing how in this case it was anything less than a stupid mistake. I looked up the church online and it honestly looks like a terrible misunderstanding. Although I am glad that they were stopped and question so people could not just go into Haiti and take children from there for more evil things.
 
I can understand how this may not sit well with people, but at the same time I just have a hard time seeing how in this case it was anything less than a stupid mistake. I looked up the church online and it honestly looks like a terrible misunderstanding. Although I am glad that they were stopped and question so people could not just go into Haiti and take children from there for more evil things.

I hope you are right but how could they have made a mistake like this? I mean I am not even thinking of going over there and know the rules so how could they have thought they could pull this off?

I am really not trying to sound cold and blessings to those people if they were trying to do the right thing but something about this whole thing is unsettling to me.

Also no offense to religious folks but just because you are part of a church does not mean much and should not mean much in things like this. We have to keep the children of Hati safe!
 
I hope you are right but how could they have made a mistake like this? I mean I am not even thinking of going over there and know the rules so how could they have thought they could pull this off?

I am really not trying to sound cold and blessings to those people if they were trying to do the right thing but something about this whole thing is unsettling to me.

Also no offense to religious folks but just because you are part of a church does not mean much and should not mean much in things like this. We have to keep the children of Hati safe!

From their website it sounds like this mistake happened because the people who set up the group did not do the research needed. They just told the actual ten people who went down there that they were allowed to take the children and go across the border. So, I think the lesson from this story is that ANY group that goes down to Haiti to help with children or any activity needs to do a lot of research to understand the rules and continue to help these people.
 
What's with this "not knowing the rules" bit? Common sense tells you that you can't move orphans from one country to another without proper government documents.

There's more to this story than meets the eye.
 
What's with this "not knowing the rules" bit? Common sense tells you that you can't move orphans from one country to another without proper government documents.

There's more to this story than meets the eye.

Especially when some of them were not even orphans... These people are criminals regardless if they say they had good intentions.
 
Especially when some of them were not even orphans... These people are criminals regardless if they say they had good intentions.

No they aren't. :roll: I would be looking at those accusing them. In case you didn't know Haiti is a bastion of corruption. Wanna make any bets the government makes some money off of this?

From what I've seen the church group had thought they jumped through all the bureaucratic hoops and were even handed off the children by Haitian representatives. At the last minute they were told they were missing one paper. Sounds like the Gestapo to me.

BTW it normally takes 3 years to adopt a child from Haiti. Any good guesses why it takes that long? I'll bet it has something to do with milking the prospective parents as much as possible. :roll:
 
Never make snap decisions about criminal cases based solely on what you read in the media!

I too am curious to see how this works out.
 
Especially when some of them were not even orphans... These people are criminals regardless if they say they had good intentions.
You're like this in every thread about this. What's with the hate for these people?
 
You're like this in every thread about this. What's with the hate for these people?

He hates Christians I think. Good old fashioned bigotry...
 
Maybe it's the cultural imperialism involved in assuming that the laws of an inferior country don't apply to you, because you are not only American, but you are doing God's work, scooping up random children to transplant them into a foreign society, away from their nasty brutish home, family and all that's familiar to them. For their own good, of course.
 
Maybe it's the cultural imperialism involved in assuming that the laws of an inferior country don't apply to you, because you are not only American, but you are doing God's work, scooping up random children to transplant them into a foreign society, away from their nasty brutish home, family and all that's familiar to them. For their own good, of course.

I have a friend who recently went over to Haiti, worked with some of the orphans, and was allowed to adopt one on the spot and bring her back.

This 3 year old little girl was understandably confused. She was confused enough that when they fed her fruit the first night, they found that she pretended to eat all of it and ask for more, only to then hide as much food as she could in her clothes. She even went far enough to bite off of the apple, fill her mouth as full as possible, and then spit it into her pocket when she thought they weren't looking. This 3 year old was so accustomed to not having enough food that she was literally hiding it in and on her body to save for later.

So **** off with the attitude towards Christians. At least they are trying to help, instead of sitting in some political forum bitching and moaning because you seem to think others shouldn't help kids who have grown up in starvation mode.
 
Oh, and calling this "child trafficking" is about as smart as calling consensual sex between a 17 year old and 16 year old "rape."
 
Maybe the Baptist should leave and let the children die. if the government would do something the baptist would not have to.

How do the missionaries get paper work to take them to a orphanage when all the government buildings have been destroyed?
 
Maybe it's the cultural imperialism involved in assuming that the laws of an inferior country don't apply to you, because you are not only American, but you are doing God's work, scooping up random children to transplant them into a foreign society, away from their nasty brutish home, family and all that's familiar to them. For their own good, of course.

That doesn't appear to be what they were doing at all. They were not "transplanting" these children. They were providing a place of shelter amid the chaos.

But let's not let those pesky little things called facts get in the way of a completely fabricated diatribe that attempts to smudge the noble motivations of those actually attempting to do something rather than bitch about it on an internet forum.
 
You're like this in every thread about this. What's with the hate for these people?

Sorry if I believe in the rule of law.

Sorry if I believe that people who break rules should suffer the consequences of breaking such rules.

Sorry if I believe that being stupid or religious is not an excuse for not following the law.

This has nothing to do with them being Americans, or religious.. I could care less about that. You and others seem to be using these 2 facts as some sort of excuse for their actions, which is pathetic attitude. Just because you are religious or an American, does not mean that you can dismiss local laws and rules as you see fit.

For god sake, some of the kids were not even freaking orphans and were picked off the street often meters from their homes..
 
Sorry if I believe in the rule of law.

Sorry if I believe that people who break rules should suffer the consequences of breaking such rules.

Sorry if I believe that being stupid or religious is not an excuse for not following the law.

This has nothing to do with them being Americans, or religious.. I could care less about that. You and others seem to be using these 2 facts as some sort of excuse for their actions, which is pathetic attitude. Just because you are religious or an American, does not mean that you can dismiss local laws and rules as you see fit.

For god sake, some of the kids were not even freaking orphans and were picked off the street often meters from their homes..

Answer this question.

How do the missionaries get paper work to take them to an orphanage when all the government buildings have been destroyed?
 
How do the missionaries get paper work to take them to a orphanage when all the government buildings have been destroyed?

Funny how others have had nooo problems getting government approval...before the government halted all adoptions for the time being because of the fear of child trafficking.

Point is, they tried to help sure, but in doing so they ignored the law of the land and now they must suffer those consequences whatever that it may be.
 
Answer this question.

How do the missionaries get paper work to take them to an orphanage when all the government buildings have been destroyed?

They dont, since there is a ban on adoptions and taking kids out of the country. And considering others have gotten the paper work needed and permission needed, then it cant be that hard.
 
For god sake, some of the kids were not even freaking orphans and were picked off the street often meters from their homes..

Can you show where in this article it says that orphans were just picked up meters from their homes? kthanx
 
They dont, since there is a ban on adoptions and taking kids out of the country. And considering others have gotten the paper work needed and permission needed, then it cant be that hard.

So it is better to leave them starving in the street?
 
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