Ten Americans Charged with Child Abduction in Haiti

U.S. missionaries have now been charged in Haiti with child abduction and criminal conspiracy.
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Ten Americans Charged with Child Abduction in Haiti
Two of the 33 Haitian children, a group of 10 Americans allegedly attempted to take across the border, sit at the SOS Children's Village in Croix des Bouquets, Haiti on Jan. 31. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)
2/4/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/HAITI-C.jpg" alt="Silas Thompson of Twin Falls, Idaho, (in red) and Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas (R), members of New Life Children's Refuge accused of child trafficking, are escorted into a court hearing on Feb. 4, 2010, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The five women and five men are part of a church organization that attempted to cross into the Dominican Republic with 33 Haitian children. (John Moore/Getty Images)" title="Silas Thompson of Twin Falls, Idaho, (in red) and Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas (R), members of New Life Children's Refuge accused of child trafficking, are escorted into a court hearing on Feb. 4, 2010, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The five women and five men are part of a church organization that attempted to cross into the Dominican Republic with 33 Haitian children. (John Moore/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1823184"/></a>
Silas Thompson of Twin Falls, Idaho, (in red) and Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas (R), members of New Life Children's Refuge accused of child trafficking, are escorted into a court hearing on Feb. 4, 2010, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The five women and five men are part of a church organization that attempted to cross into the Dominican Republic with 33 Haitian children. (John Moore/Getty Images)
U.S. missionaries, connected with an Idaho Baptist church, have now been charged in Haiti with child abduction and criminal conspiracy.

Five men and five women had been kept in jail since Friday, after they were stopped at the Dominican Republic border.

They failed to present official documentation for 33 Haitian children they had with them. Haiti’s PM Jean-Max Bellerive has labeled the missionaries as “kidnappers,” although the group claims they were falsely arrested and their intention was innocent. Haitian Justice Minister Paul Denis dismissed the suggestions that the Americans could be tried in the U.S. The long-term problems with child trafficking and child prostitution have worsened in Haiti following January’s earthquake.