PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Ten U.S. Baptists were being held in theHaitian capital Sunday after trying take 33 children out of Haiti ata time of growing fears over possible child trafficking.
The church members, most from Idaho, said they were trying torescue abandoned and traumatized children. But officials said theylacked the proper documents when they were arrested Friday night ina bus along with earthquake survivors aged from 2 months to 12years.
The group said its "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" was an effortto help abandoned children by taking them to an orphanage across theborder in the Dominican Republic.
"In this chaos the government is in right now, we were justtrying to do the right thing," the group's spokeswoman, LauraSilsby, told The Associated Press at the judicial policeheadquarters in the capital, where the Americans were being heldpending a Monday hearing before a judge.
The children, some of them sick and dehydrated, were taken to anorphanage run by Austrian-based SOS Children's Villages, which wastrying to find their parents or close relatives, said a spokesmanthere, George Willeit.
"One child, an 8- or 9-year-old, said she thought she was goingto some sort of summer or vacation camp in the Dominican Republic,"Willeit said.
The Baptist group planned to scoop up 100 kids and take them bybus to a 45-room hotel at Cabarete, a beach resort in the DominicanRepublic, that they were converting into an orphanage, Silsby toldthe AP.
Whether they realized it or not, these Americans - the firstknown to be taken into custody since the Jan. 12 quake - putthemselves in the middle of a firestorm in Haiti, where governmentleaders have suspended adoptions amid fears that parentless or lostchildren are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking.
While many legitimate adoption agencies and orphanages operate inHaiti, often run by religious groups, the intergovernmentalInternational Organization for Migration reported in 2007 that bogusadoption agencies in Haiti were offering children to rich Haitiansand foreigners in return for processing fees reaching $10,000.
Silsby said her group, including members from Texas and Kansas,paid no money for the children, whom she said they obtained from aHaitian pastor named Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries.
Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, was asked if she didn't consider itnaive to cross the border without adoption papers at a time whenHaitians are so concerned about child trafficking. "By no means arewe any part of that. That's exactly what we are trying to combat,"she said.
She said she hadn't been following news reports while in Haiti.
Social Affairs Minister Yves Cristallin told the AP that theAmericans were suspected of taking part in an illegal adoptionscheme.
Some members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian,Idaho, wept on Sunday as Pastor Clint Henry reported the team hadbeen detained and asked for prayers.
"They have been arrested. They've been charged with childtrafficking," he told the congregation. "You need to understand thatobviously those are serious charges, but they're in a nation wherethis has been a practice, a wicked and evil practice."
Willeit, the SOS spokesman, said the children arrived at hisorphanage "very hungry, very thirsty, some dehydrated." All hadtheir names written on pink tape on their shirts.
Following the quake, children's rights groups have urged a haltto adoptions until it can be determined that the children have norelatives who can raise them. Many children in Haitian orphanageshave parents who cannot afford to care for them.
The government now requires Prime Minister Max Bellerive topersonally authorize the departure of any child as a way to preventchild trafficking - though that has not stopped the flow of orphansabroad.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist told ABC News' Good Morning America onSunday that his state has taken in 300 Haitian orphans since thequake, with 60 to 80 orphans arriving there Friday night alone.
UNICEF and other groups have been registering children who mayhave been separated from their parents and are placing them intemporary shelters while they try to find relatives or a permanenthome.
U.S. diplomats met with the detained Americans and gave them bugspray and field rations, according to Sean Lankford of Meridian,Idaho, whose wife and 18-year-old daughter were being held.
"There are allegations of child trafficking and that reallycouldn't be farther from the truth," Lankford said. The children"were going to get the medical attention they needed. They weregoing to get the clothes and the food and the love they need to behealthy and to start recovering from the tragedy that justhappened."
Silsby said they had documents from the Dominican government, butdid not seek any paperwork from the Haitian authorities.
She said the children were brought to the Haitian pastor bydistant relatives and only those with no close family would be putup for adoption.
The 10 Americans include members of Central Valley Baptist andthe East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho. Friends andrelatives have been in touch with them through text messages andphone calls, Lankford said.
The group had described its plans on a Web site where it askedfor tax-deductible contributions to help it "gather" 100 orphans andbus them to Cabarete before building a more permanent orphanage inthe Dominican town of Magante.
"Given the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid uponour hearts the need to go now versus waiting until the permanentfacility is built," the group wrote.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS American citizen Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise,Idaho, speaks as Nicole Lankford, left, 18, of Middleton, Idaho andCarla
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