I am publishing part 7 out of chronological order so as to be timely (this piece was published on Monday the 25th.) We’ll come back for parts 5 and 6 soon enough.

At the European Union foreign ministers meeting January 25th, a decision was made concerning whether or not additional EU countries will be “fast-tracking” child removals from Haiti.

Please see the comment below for the update to this piece.

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As the Haitian child exports are receiving a great deal of attention at the moment I’d like to welcome new readers and recommend a visit to my about page and my WTF page. They answer many basic questions and lay out my comments policy.

If you are new to this series please backtrack and read the previous articles on my Haiti tag as this series relies upon definitions of words such as “orphanage” that I’ve already discussed in my previous Haitian posts.

Then read my Introduction to this Series.

Without at minimum reading the short Introduction, you will miss the context these parts or chapters were written in.

I am an adult adoptee, writing from an explicitly Bastard perspective on these matters.

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Part 7: France and the European Union

The article makes several brief mentions of the French removal of children and the Unicef objections to their removal, rooted it attempts to preserve what shards of family history and identity the Haitian children have left now that the government held records, birth certificates and the like, have been destroyed in the quake ( a loss to Haitians and these uprooted children that stretches far beyond what words can express. Again, there’s an entire post to do right there, as well. So once again, I note the importance thereof, but try to continue on.)

Mayi Garneadia-Pierre, a Unicef child protection volunteer, at the orphanage of Our Lady of the Nativity, in Port-au-Prince, from where children were sent to France for adoption on Friday, is concerned about their future.

“We wouldn’t stop any child from being saved,” she said. “But when a child grows to 15-years-old he has an enormous need of signposts of his identity. It’s not abuse in the sense of mistreatment, but it’s abusive in the sense of making a permanent break. You need to keep links.”

Monday, at the European Union foreign ministers meeting, a decision was be made (see comment below) concerning whether or not the EU would fully join in on the adoption gold-rush (though note that Haiti *MAY* be acting to protect its children from export.)

Against Child Trafficking is speaking out against it, grounded firmly in Haiti’s preexisting history with inter-country adoption, (also be sure to see About Orphanages in Haiti, an older article from Dec. 2006) (emphasis mine):

The issue is expected to deeply divide a meeting of European Union foreign ministers on Monday after Spain proposed “speeding up procedures for adoption cases” across Europe.

Roelie Post, of Against Child Trafficking, a Brussels-based group, said: “It is madness. It is insane. If the EU supports this it will lend its power and credibility to an adoption industry driven by greed and money.”

This post has more information about Monday’s meeting, EU urged to fast-track adoptions from Haiti: Spanish presidency:

The Spanish presidency of the European Union will next week urge the bloc to forge a common position on fast-track adoptions from Haiti, Madrid said Friday.

and

Several countries are fast-tracking adoption procedures already under way, including Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States.

The entire link should followed.

By way of backgrounder, readers will also want to explore, Council of Europe Conference reveals itself as a Adoption Lobby Network.

Finally, the following chart represents United Adoptees International’s attempt to document some of the numbers on the kids being exported. It comes from the UAI news blog’s lefthand sidebar.

EXPEDITION LIST HAITIAN CHILDREN

In order to have an overview of numbers, the UAI herewith tries to collect the numbers of Haitian adoptions or airlifts since the earthquake:

* Netherlands: 6+92 =98
* Belgium: 14
* Canada: 100 ?
* France: 30 (276+904= 1180 awaiting)
* Germany: 30
* Italy: 50 ?
* Luxembourg: 14
* Spain: 40 ?
* USA: 100 (900 awaiting)

TOTAL NO 24.01.2010 : 300 (between 18.01.-24.01.2010) 4450 awaiting.

The American numbers are low, I’ve documented more via news accounts of the flights, but this at least gives a starting place to understand what’s happening.

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Read the comment below for the outcome of Monday’s meeting

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Back to read part 4, (perhaps the most important piece of the series.)

Return to the Introduction/table of contents