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HAITI
Adoptions continue but travel to Haiti remains fraught with danger. U.S. authorities warn of serious risks for travellers. Canadian authorities advise against travel to Haiti.
A coup d'état ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004. Civil instability brought the adoption process to a temporary halt. Families lived through anxious months when they were unable to bring to Canada the Haitian children they had adopted in 2003. Adoptions resumed but by May 31, 2004 Foreign Affairs warned Canadians not to travel to Haiti unless absolutely necessary, and the Canadian Embassy in Haiti strongly discouraged adoptive parents from travelling to Haiti to pick up their children.
In its travel advisory of May 31, 2004, www.voyage.gc.ca/dest/report-en.asp?country=117000, the Department of Foreign Affairs warned Canadians not to travel to Haiti unless they have critical or compelling business or family reasons, citing increased criminal activity and lawlessness throughout the country. The Canadian Embassy in Haiti is strongly discouraging adoptive parents from travelling to Haiti to pick up their children. Canadian officials will contact them as soon as the situation in Haiti allows adopted children to travel to Canada. A child must have a Haitian passport to leave Haiti.
Official warning: Do not travel to Haiti -- In its July 18, 2005 travel report, Foreign Affairs advised against all travel to Haiti. Criminal activity, police reprisals and lawlessness are persistent throughout Haiti. Kidnappings and carjackings are frequent. Personal safety cannot be guaranteed by local authorities, and police no longer have a presence in certain cities. Canadians who decide to travel to Haiti despite this warning should monitor local news reports and exercise extreme caution at all times. [Foreign Affairs Canada, www.voyage.gc.ca/dest/report-en.asp?country=117000, July 18, 2005]
Requirements easing -- Although Alberta has had no official notification of this change in Haiti's requirements for adoptive families, practice confirms that a prospective adoptive parent must be older than age 35; for married couples, one parent may be under age 35, provided the couple has been married ten years and has no children together. Haiti may lower its age requirement. Requests to have the age requirement waived must be submitted in writing to the Institut du Bien Etre Social et de Recherches (IBESR, the Haitian adoption authority). However, a local adoption agency reports that IBESR agreed to sign dossiers for parents 28 years or older, married for at least five years and with no biological children. They also say that the President will sign for those who have no more than three biological children, but all files for families with more than three biological children will be refused. Haiti still permits adoption by single parents. [Alberta Children's Services, www.child.gov.ab.ca/whatwedo/adoption/page.cfm, July 2005]
In its travel report of Aug. 28, 2006, Foreign Affairs advised Canadians against all travel to Haiti, for the same reasons given in the July 18, 2005 report (above).
In its travel warning of Jan. 10, 2007 the U.S. State Dept. warned U.S. citizens of "ongoing security concerns in Haiti, including frequent kidnappings of Americans for ransom. Travelers are strongly advised to thoroughly consider the risks before travel to Haiti, and to take adequate precautions to ensure their safety if they do so." Over 50 Americans were kidnapped in 2005, and over 60 in 2006, most in Port-au-Prince. State Dept. advised vigilance due to the absence of an effective police force in much of Haiti.
In its travel report of Mar. 8, 2007, Foreign Affairs maintained its advice against Canadians travelling to Haiti. Those there should consider leaving if their presence is not essential. The Embassy of Canada in Port-au-Prince is open but all dependants of embassy staff have been removed. If travelling to Haiti, ensure you are expected and are met at the airport. The security situation is uncertain. Police stations in several towns have been abandoned. Fuel and basic necessities are in very short supply in some areas, notably in the north.
Alberta Children's Services advised in April 2007 that Haitian adoption dossiers must include four passport photos of each applicant as well as pictures of the home and the child's room.
Halt in Quebec -- SAI announced on Apr. 17, 2007 that "temporarily" it would accept no new applications for Haiti while it meets with Haitian authorities to work out "certain procedures". Files in process will continue normally. The meeting will raise issues identified in the recent UNICEF report.
SAI met with its Haitian counterparts May 22-29, 2007. Discussions with IBESR focussed on the adoption process, which has become more and more complicated, prolonging the waiting time of Haitian children awaiting adoption. The new IBESR directors are aware of the system's deficiencies, and are tightening security measures and reviewing their adoption legislation. In the short term they plan to treat new files strictly according to the present law; files already sent to Haiti would be processed as usual. Thus Quebec adoption agencies (Soleil des nations and Accueillons un enfant) may once again take applications, but until a new law sets out new eligibility rules, agencies must strictly apply the 1974 Decree on Adoption. We suspect this applies to all Canadian agencies. The 1974 Decree says only couples married at least ten years are allowed (recently, unmarried couples together for five years were accepted); and applicants must be over 35 (recently, over 30). The criteria are in the SAI table "Conditions in Source Countries" (in French).
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For resources on Haiti adoption, see Adoption Resource Central, Country-specific Resources - Haiti.
Find an agency for Haiti: Agency Chooser, www.familyhelper.net/ad/chooser.html
Descriptions of agency programs are at Adoption Agencies, www.familyhelper.net/arc/agy.html
Country News is written by Robin Hilborn,
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