Parents in Argentina say that the government is doing nothing to help them get their adopted Haitian children out of the earthquake-devastated country. Fourteen Argentine families are waiting to be reunited with children they adopted before 12th January, when Haiti was hit by the quake.
Claiming that their repeated requests for assistance have been ignored, many are taking matters into their own hands, and travelling to Haiti or the neighbouring Dominican Republic, in an attempt to be with their children, who are living in rapidly deteriorating conditions. They hope to be able to secure the necessary paperwork – which was lost in the rubble – to take their children out of the country.
One couple, Astrid and Francisco Ramos, returned to Argentina on the morning of 12th January, before the earthquake hit. They are now battling to get back into Haiti, to be reunited with and rescue their nine month-old son, Stephen. They described their situation to CNN: “Stephen is our child…We need to get him out immediately.”
The destruction of Stephen’s adoption papers created a logistical nightmare for the Ramos family and parents around the world, who had started the adoption process before the catastrophe occurred. Stephen is currently healthy and being cared for, but his adoptive parents are worried that worsening conditions in Port-au-Prince could lessen the infant’s chance of survival.
Several countries, like the US and France, fast-tracked the adoption process for their citizens, but according to Francisco, “the lack of response from the Argentine government shows that they are not interested in resolving the problem like other countries have done. So we need to go and see for ourselves how our son is.”
Thousands of Haitian children were orphaned after the quake. Many international agencies have stopped accepting new adoption applications until some semblance of order is restored in the country. However, Argentine families for whom the adoption process was already underway cannot understand why their government has not taken the initiative to get the children into a proper home before it is too late.
Mariela Cavanna explained how her two-year-old adopted son, MacKender, was due to arrive in Argentina from Haiti on 19th January: “In MacKender’s orphanage there were 118 children before the earthquake. Since then, 116 of them have left the country. The only two remaining are the ones adopted by Argentine families.”
The Argentine Foreign Ministry declined interview requests from international press. In a statement released on Tuesday, it said Argentina is complying with a 1989 United Nations agreement regarding procedures for international child adoption, but did not offer any further response to the parent’s request for assistance.
Instead, the 14 Argentine families must for now fight, single-handedly, to be reunited with their children.
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