![]() ![]() ![]() Given the ongoing crush at Haiti's main immigration office, government officials recently opened two makeshift offices in a gymnasium and a soccer field elsewhere in Port-au-Prince. “It’s the safety of the children that’s the concern here.” “Can we even say we prioritize adoption when we have legal options that we choose not to utilize?” he said. National Council for Adoption who is not related to Bryan Hanlon, said in a phone interview that the State Department’s manual calls on officials to prioritize adoption cases. Ryan Hanlon, president and CEO of the U.S. government denied his request for a waiver by noting that both Haiti's immigration office and the Ministry of the Interior were open for business, and that passport waivers are for use only on a case-by-case basis and as a last resort. He shared email messages with The Associated Press in which the U.S. Hanlon noted they are the legal parents of Gina and Peterson, not prospective adoptive parents. We will continue to engage with the Haitian government on this issue.” “We remain committed to helping prospective adoptive parents navigate the often-complicated journey of intercountry adoption. “We understand that it is currently difficult for prospective adoptive parents to obtain a Haitian passport,” the spokesperson said. “It feels like our voices are not being heard.”Ī spokesperson for the State Department said intercountry adoption is one of the agency's highest priorities and that it uses all appropriate tools to identify and overcome barriers. “It’s just devastating,” she said, adding that like the Hanlons, they haven’t been able to obtain a passport waiver from the State Department. Despite having an appointment, they could not get inside, nor could some of the office’s own employees, Baeth said. In late January, her daughter and caretakers flew from their orphanage in northern Haiti to Port-au-Prince only to encounter a huge crowd at the immigration office. She and her husband became the legal parents of a 5-year-old girl in Haiti nearly a year ago, but they don’t know when they will be able to meet her. Hanlon said he and his wife send money to the caretaker, but that “some days, there is just no food to buy or no fuel to cook it.” Other times, she cannot leave the house to pick up the money because it’s too dangerous, he said.īrooke Baeth, an elementary school speech therapist in Minnesota, understands the fear and frustration. With their orphanage abandoned because of the violence, the children had been taken by one of their caretakers to her home in southern Haiti, where they have remained, he said. “We didn’t know if they were alive or dead.” “That was the worst day of our lives,” Hanlon said. The violence that erupts as gangs fight over territory has left tens of thousands of Haitians homeless. Then in October, the siblings had to flee the orphanage with a caretaker as gangs raided the neighborhood, killing dozens of civilians and setting homes on fire. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |