![]() ![]() “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. Last year, 5-year-old Peterson became malnourished and had to be taken to a clinic, where he was treated for a couple of months. Haiti also is fighting a deadly cholera outbreak and a spike in starvation. Armed groups have attacked more than a dozen schools and set one on fire, and they also have killed one student and kidnapped at least two teachers, according to UNICEF statistics released Thursday. More than 1 million children are not going to school as a result of social unrest and other issues, with 72 schools reporting violent attacks since October, compared with only eight during the same time period the previous year. Gangs also are raping women and children at an alarming rate, including those as young as 10, officials say. Last year, the number of reported kidnappings in Haiti soared to 1,359, more than double the previous year, and 2,183 killings were reported, up by a third from 2021, according to the United Nations. ![]() They became the legal parents of Peterson, 5, and Gina, 6, last year and fear they won’t be able to secure passports for the children and fly them out of Haiti, which has been in a downward spiral since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. ![]()
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