By Gabrielle Tassone -- February 1, 2010
The ten Americas detained in Port-Au-Prince,Haiti, on allegations of child trafficking, will appear before a judge on Monday.
The church group from Idaho had attempted to move 33 children from Port-Au-Prince, to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Officials say the group was missing the proper documents to transfer Haitian children across the border, and were arrested Friday night on allegations of child trafficking.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti's capital, the five men and five women are being held on "alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration;" Government approval is required for any Haitian children to leave the country. The Americans attempting to move the children have admitted that the children do not have passports.
The Americans, however, have detailed their "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" as an attempt to help the children abandoned by the earthquake that shook the nation on January 12.
SOS Children's Villages, George Willeit, however, said that some of the "abandoned" children do in fact have living relatives.
"Some of them are for sure not orphans," Willeit told CNN. He believes at least 10 children involved in the incident are not orphaned.
Rev. Clint Henry, of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, where some of the church group members worship, told KTVB on Sunday that the accusations of trafficking have resulted in phone calls to the church "including obscenities, accusations.. things I don't care to repeat."
According to Henry, "We're waiting ... and hoping and praying that that outcome will be the one that we're looking for, so the team that has been falsely charged will be vindicated, and that the whole world is going to know that we weren't here doing the kind of things we're being accused of doing."
The first group to be detained since the January 12 quake, the Americans have entered into a political storm of sorts; Haitian government leaders have suspended most adoptions in the last month due to the fear of child trafficking.
Laura Silsby, the spokeswoman for the group, said "By no means are we any part of that. That's exactly what we are trying to combat."
