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• 01 / 20 / 2010

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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday it is worried about some countries decision of speeding up Haitian children adoptions after the earthquake, in detriment of family reunification.

 "We want to find the children's family at all cost and to achieve reunification. Adoptions are the last alternative", explained the UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau.

 She reacted to the news about some countries' intentions of giving minors to foreign families.

 The Dutch government sent an airplane to pick up 109 children who were to be adopted when the quake shook the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the European Countries spokeswomen Ozlem Canel said.

 The United States also announced they will speed up the process, although it stated they will not receive all the orphans.

 According to the US secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, the measure will only include those children identified as "eligible" and those who were in adoption process.

 The Catholic Church of Miami also is preparing a plan to Haiti similar to the "Operation Peter Pan", a cruel and inhuman plan that separated 14 thousand Cuban Children from their families y 1960.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said that he is worried about the thousands of children separated from their families after the seism that shook Puerto Principe and other Haitian cities.

 The organization demanded "effective measures to protect the children against all the violence and exploitation, including the sexual violence and kidnaps under the adoption".

 The last week's earthquake has result in about 100,000 deaths, 250,000 people injured and have damaged three million people so far.

Source: PL