VCU social work professor urges caution in providing humanitarian help to Haiti’s youngest earthquake survivors

By Mike Porter

Some of Haiti’s youngest earthquake survivors are at great risk for being permanently separated from their families, according to Karen Rotabi, Ph.D., assistant professor, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work.

Rotabi said a child originally thought to be orphaned by the earthquake may later be returned to family members after parents or relatives are located. But if the child is quickly removed from the country — for foster care or adoption — the chance of a reunion with family members is greatly reduced.

Children may have become separated from their families due to death, injury or the chaos caused in the aftermath of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, which shook Haiti on Jan. 12.

“Imagine how horrifying it is if you’re looking for your 2-year-old because you left them at a day care or a friend’s house and now you can’t find them. And then you later learn that the child was taken out of the country. Your chances of being reunited with that child are very slim, especially if you’re from a poor family,” Rotabi said.

Since the earthquake, there have been offers from around the world to relocate Haitian children believed to be orphans to other countries for foster care or adoption. Rotabi said these offers of intercountry adoption are well intentioned, but not necessarily the best option for the children, for their surviving families or for Haiti.

“Right now, we’re seeing this sort of rush to get involved and make something happen for the children and that’s really humanitarian. That’s our gut-level response. It’s understandable,” Rotabi said. “The Haitian government needs to determine by their own standards whether a child is really acceptable for intercountry adoption. And that really takes a real investigatory process. We’re talking about a country with infrastructure in really terrible condition. And they certainly don’t have family courts to do large numbers of intercountry adoptions.”

Intercountry adoption received international attention when 10 American missionaries were arrested a few weeks after the earthquake as they tried to take 33 Haitian children across the border into the Dominican Republic. They claimed to be rescuing orphaned children but were charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracy.

“This case is getting a lot of attention and it’s creating a lot of conversation about ‘baby lifts’ and people ask is this a ‘baby lift’ to rescue these children from a desperate situation or is this a baby abduction?” Rotabi said.

Rotabi led an effort by a group of social workers and social scholars to send a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling on her to require DNA testing of all Haitian children who were granted humanitarian visas to enter the United States for medical treatment.

“How are we going to find those children’s families later? Some of them have uncertain identities,” Rotabi said. “So our recommendation is that the DNA testing should accompany those humanitarian visas so that tests can be done here in the United States and a database should be started.”

The group called for the process to be managed by a non-government entity with a strong information management system and no connection to the practice of intercountry adoptions.

Rotabi said that regardless of how policymakers handle the early stages of a child rescue, social workers must continue to caution anyone hoping to adopt an orphan. While legitimate adoptions already under way before the earthquake have been expedited, Rotabi said instability in Haiti has created an atmosphere favorable for child exploitation.

“Already there are reports of scams, with families in the United States being offered the opportunity to adopt and unscrupulous individuals requiring up-front fees and payments for adoption services,” Rotabi said.