Traffickers targeting Haiti’s children, human organs, PM says


Traffickers targeting Haiti’s children, human organs, PM says
  • Text size
  • Larger
  • Smaller

Tom Evans
CNN
January 27, 2010

Trafficking of children and human organs is occurring in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated parts of Haiti, killed more than 150,000 people, and left many children orphans, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said Wednesday.


“There is organ trafficking for children and other persons also, because they need all types of organs,” Bellerive said in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

He did not give specifics, but asked by Amanpour if there is trafficking of children, Bellerive said, “The reports I received say yes.”

Read entire article

Views: 105

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by truth on January 29, 2010 at 3:28pm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100128/wl_time/028804195337919534941...

(and check out the title of the book Time magazine put out on Haiti--referneced at the end of the article)

Human Predators Stalk Haiti's Vulnerable Kids

By TIM PADGETT WITH BOBBY GHOSH / PORT-AU-PRINCE Tim Padgett With Bobby Ghosh / Port-au-prince – Wed Jan 27, 7:40 pm ET
Mia Pean's heart sank last week when she saw the Toyota pickup truck cruising the debris-cluttered streets of Leogagne, ground zero for the earthquake that has devastated Haiti. Each time the driver saw a child - especially a young teen - he would stick his head out of the window and shout, "Manje, manje," Creole for "eat." Pean says she watched the hungry kids, four or five at a time, hop into the back of the pickup, which then disappeared. "I saw the same man again a few days later in Carrefour," a poor suburb of Port-au-Prince, says Pean. "I asked him, 'What are you doing with all those children?' He said, 'Don't worry, we're going to put them in safe homes.' Then he drove off."


But Pean, a Haitian-American emergency consultant for the Andrew Young Foundation, doubts that altruism is the motive of the pickup driver, and others like him, who are now prowling Haiti's streets. The quake that has killed 150,000 people has left thousands of children orphaned, and vulnerable to being preyed upon by child traffickers and Haiti's shameful tradition of keeping child slaves known as restaveks. "I really fear," says Pean, "that most of the kids you see being picked up on the streets in Haiti right now are going to become restaveks or victims of sexual trafficking." (See TIME's exclusive photos from the Haiti earthquake.)


Pean isn't the only one concerned. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive on Tuesday expressed the fear that amid the clamor to airlift Haitian orphans out of the devastated country to waiting adoptive parents in the U.S. and Europe, others are being trafficked. The U.N. says it's on alert to prevent the exploitation of the thousands of Haitian kids who've lost or been separated from their parents and who wander aimlessly in search of food, water and shelter. UNICEF, the U.N.'s child advocacy arm, as well as groups like Save the Children and the Red Cross, say they're registering at-risk kids and setting up shelters exclusively for them. Says one UNICEF official monitoring reports of scenes like the one witnessed by Pean, "Traffickers fish in pools of vulnerability, and we've rarely if ever seen one like this."


The earthquake seems to have shaken more Haitians into vigilance as well - and perhaps, unfortunately, some vigilantism. In the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Petit Place Cazeu on Wednesday, a crowd of quake survivors living in tents surrounded a pickup truck and beat up the driver, saying he had for several days been trying to kidnap young girls. Bleeding from his nose, mouth and scalp, he managed to get back in his truck and flee. (The angry crowd then threatened to beat up a journalist for even asking questions about child trafficking.)


But the problem remains daunting, and it is exacerbated by the fact that children are not accorded much if any protection under Haitian law or culture. That's a big reason restaveks are still so prevalent today, not just in Haiti but even in Haitian-American enclaves in the U.S., such as New York and Miami, as TIME first reported in 2001. Restavek in Creole means "to stay with," an innocuous term for a far more sinister practice - children, often given up by their poor Haitian families, "stay with" more affluent families as slaves. And like most slaves, they're usually subject to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. (See more pictures from Haiti's devastating earthquake.)


Before the earthquake, the Haitian government itself estimated that more than 300,000 Haitian children were living as restaveks in the country, and more of them abroad. Those numbers are likely to grow, says Danielle Romer, a Haitian-American social worker and head of Haitian Support Inc. in Miami, who has long fought the restavek practice - her efforts still often met with denial and even anger by many Haitians. "We were starting to see some improvement before the earthquake, both in terms of getting more of these children into orphanages and missions and in terms of getting some teaching about it out to Haitians," says Romer. "But I'm afraid the earthquake just opens the box to a scarier situation."


Joan Conn, executive director of the Jean Cadet Restavek Foundation in Cincinnati, agrees. "We had been building more awareness in Haiti than ever before," says Conn. "At least people were actually starting to say the word 'restavek' out loud for once. But with so many children now abandoned and alone, the task could become even harder." Conn's organization - named for Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavek whose 1998 autobiography, Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle Class American, lifted the lid on the problem - works to give restaveks refuge in Haiti. In the wake of the earthquake, its staff and volunteers have fanned out across Port-au-Prince and the provinces to watch out for vulnerable kids. (See a TIME video with former President Bill Clinton speaking on Haiti.)


Under prodding from the U.N., the Haitian government last year had finally begun to move against the restavek practice. Last May, some 500 Haitian officials attending a conference with Conn and other child advocates had pledged to make restavek and child-protection a legislative priority. But word has yet to trickle down to the general Haitian population, says Conn, and most restavek recruiters and other child traffickers still feel they have carte blanche to funnel kids to wealthier Haitian families, or abroad.


Worse, says Pean, many of them are exploiting the rush to get Haitian children out of the quake-ravaged country. She recalls the man in the Toyota pickup telling her that "Senators in Washington want us to expedite getting the kids to the U.S." But, she adds, "the Senators are talking about kids who already have adoption papers ready. These guys are trying to exploit all that confusion." The situation for Haitian youths was difficult enough before the earthquake. Now, in addition to losing their families, many are under the threat of losing their childhoods as well.


See how to help the Haiti earthquake victims.


Read more in the new TIME book Earthquake Haiti: Tragedy and Hope and support TIME's Haiti relief efforts
Comment by Tara on January 29, 2010 at 12:12pm
Comment by Tara on January 29, 2010 at 10:43am
This is just a hunch but I'm starting to think that the Israeli Army might have an ulterior motive to being over in Haiti on there so-called life saving mission. This ties into Yahya's post: Haiti Hypocrisy Hides Another War Crime in Gaza. Of course they are also there to save face and mask what is going on in Gaza and to the Palestinians, but I think there may be more to the story than meets the eyes. It's interesting to note that the Israeli Army is being credited in the western media as saving Haitian children, but what if and this is a what if, they are saving children with the one hand and with the other hand stealing them away in the night. There has been substantial reason to believe that they have trafficked children and have stolen organs in numerous cases in the past.

Here's some links to some of the stories about human trafficking and organ theft that are leading me to believe that the Israeli Army is up to no good:

http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ukrainian-kids-new-victi...

http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-jewish-organ-theft-gang

http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/update-1mayors-rabbis-ar...

http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/arrest-of-nj-rabbis-mayors

http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/rabbis-who-ran-soprano

http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/children-missing-from-haiti

http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/levy-izhak-rosenbaum

http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles/blogs/list-of-names-pics-nj

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Doc Vega posted blog posts
3 hours ago
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Marjory Taylor Green Proposes Bill Abolishing Geoengineering or Weather Modification
"cheeki kea Marjory is in a daily battle with Democrats on the hill constantly coming up with more…"
5 hours ago
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Wednesday
Mr. Sizzle favorited Less Prone's video
Wednesday
tjdavis posted a photo
Tuesday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

The Saga of Joe Adams May Have Solved What's Behind the Numerous Disappearances Going on in our National Forests

     The year is 2023 in September. A nature’s photographer and experienced survivalist, Joe Adams…See More
Monday
Sandy posted a video

Aron Siri's opening statement, Senate Hearing on Covid Vaccines, May 25

Opening statement Aaron Siri, Managing Partner, Siri & Glimstad, L.L.P.Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Permanent Subcommittee on Investiga...
Monday
cheeki kea replied to cheeki kea's discussion Tartaria
"A smidgeon of facts have come to light. In English a misspelling suddenly occurred where an extra R…"
Monday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

The Cancel Culture Vulture

  Better to shut them down than hear their point of viewCancel culture coming after youHelping to…See More
Jul 12
Doc Vega posted a photo
Jul 11
Doc Vega posted a blog post

The Fingerprint

The Fingerprint On a dance with the unpredictability of the signals you sendA solemn pact with my…See More
Jul 11
Sandy posted a video
Jul 11
tjdavis posted a video
Jul 9
Burbia replied to Burbia's discussion Trump Receives Marching Orders
Jul 9
Less Prone favorited Burbia's video
Jul 9
Less Prone replied to Burbia's discussion Trump Receives Marching Orders
"Bullets can be effective in reinforcing ownership."
Jul 9
Burbia posted a discussion

Trump Receives Marching Orders

Netanyahu has made 3 visits to the White house since Trump's second term as President of the United…See More
Jul 9
Burbia commented on Burbia's video
Thumbnail

Ben Shapiro Just LOST HIS MIND — There's No Coming Back From This

"Omg. The Ben Shapiro voice that Luke is imitating here couldn't be any more comedic to…"
Jul 8
Burbia posted a video

Ben Shapiro Just LOST HIS MIND — There's No Coming Back From This

Get the magnesium your body needs - https://wearechange.shop/product/magnesium-glycinate/Ben Shapiro Just LOST HIS MIND — There's No Coming Back From ThisHig...
Jul 8
cheeki kea posted photos
Jul 8

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted