Haitian children in US limbo

A student jumping over a barricade set up during a small protest on Tuesday against the Haitian government.

Thu, July 29, 2010 - 12:00 AM

PITTSBURGH – Six months after a chaotic airlift to the United States, 12 Haitian children remain in a Roman Catholic institution near Pittsburgh, their fate in limbo while United States and Haitian authorities struggle to determine which nation should be their permanent home.

Their case is complicated and politically sensitive, and all parties say they want the best outcome possible for the children. Yet impatience in some quarters is growing.

“It’s astounding to me that the bureaucracy can’t get this done,” said Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who took part in the airlift. “It’s unfair to these children. Let’s get them adopted by loving families.”

Unlike some 1 100 other children flown out of Haiti to the United States after the January 12 earthquake, the youths at the Holy Family Institute in Emsworth, Pennsylvania, were not part of the adoption process prior to the quake and – according to some legal experts – shouldn’t have been eligible for the emergency programme.

There are American families eager to adopt them now, including some who’ve been screened and approved by adoption agencies. But there’s been little in the way of public updates on the case as federal agencies, the Haitian government and the International Red Cross try to determine whether the 12 should be put up for United States adoption or returned to relatives in Haiti.

The State Department, which oversees various aspects of international adoption, is deeply involved in the case – but has not issued statements about it. Two staffers – authorised by the department to brief a reporter only if they not be identified – described the case as very complex and said there was no timeframe for resolving it as efforts continue to verify information about the children’s families in Haiti.

(AP)