In the weeks following the Haitian earthquake, money, medical supplies and volunteers poured into the country. While economists debated the merits of foreign aid, world leaders jumped at the chance to increase their soft power in the international community. The general public might have had the purest motives during the tragedy as they sent millions of dollars and prayers.
Unfortunately for a few Haitian orphans – and their parents – good intentions landed them at the border of the Dominican Republic and landed 10 missionaries in a Haitian jail. Which, despite the missionaries’ belief their actions were righteous, was a reasonable and fair response from the Haitian government.
According to ABC News and Reuters, a Haitian judge ruled Thursday to release the 10 missionaries, most of them members of a Baptist church in Idaho. The group was arrested about two weeks ago and accused of child kidnapping after attempting to cross the border into the Dominican Republic with 33 Haitian children, who the missionaries believed were orphans.
Oddly enough, many of the children were found to have at least one living parent, although some parents testified they willingly gave their children to the group. The group didn’t have a single document verifying the orphan status of the children or granting the missionaries’ permission to remove them from the country, in spite of the fact the Haitian government had suspended all adoptions days before.
The media and the missionaries themselves have made much of their honest motives and their faith. They have assured the Haitian government they did not intend to kidnap the children, and although they have no way to prove their claim, we have no reason to disbelieve them. The Haitian government, however, has every right to be skeptical. Haiti has experienced high levels of human trafficking, and the government fears traffickers will exploit the lack of infrastructure and decreased security resulting from the earthquake to cover their activity.
If the missionaries had been better prepared, they might have taken this into consideration. Most of them, though, had little to no experience in international aid. The trip was poorly planned and hastily undertaken, and the travelers suffered from a grotesque ignorance of the political, economic and social situation. It seems as though they just jumped on a bus to Port-au-prince and gathered up as many poor, little Haitian babies as they could – and made the decision in about five minutes.
The cultural superiority inherent in that description of the children is the other strike against the missionaries. At a time when the international community is already pushing the boundaries of Haiti’s national sovereignty, it is insensitive and foolish to treat the government or the people of Haiti as though they were incapable of caring for themselves or making rational decisions. The Haitian social affairs minister criticized the missionaries harshly, saying they wouldn’t do something like that in their own country. It shouldn’t be acceptable in Haiti, either. The point is made sharper when we look at disasters in the U.S., such as Hurricane Katrina, where aid workers indeed did not attempt to “rescue” children from New Orleans. Regardless of their overt mission, the underlying message said, “We think you need our help.”
Naïveté as an excuse stretches only so thin. ACU and the Abilene community have contributed much to the Haitian effort, and even college students seem to have enough sense to follow the proper channels. The missionaries may not deserve jail time for stupidity, but they certainly should face some consequences. Perhaps the negative media attention will be enough; a fine or being banned from the country would be more satisfactory. Regardless of the punishment, one would hope the shame they’ve brought on themselves – and on the church – would be enough to deter such foolishness in the future.
