Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Apr 27, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The group of missionaries from the United States have been charged by a Haitian judge with arranging irregular travel, but thankfully, all the serious charges have been withdrawn. Initially, the group was arrested for attempting to traffic the children out of the country during the terrible earthquake that struck the country in January this year. The group was stopped in the Haitian border, as they were trying to gain entry into the Dominican Republic. They were taken into custody and put to trial on the charges of attempting to traffic the children, who they claimed they had taken from the devastated country in order to transport them to better places.

However, the missionaries’ versions were not believed due to a number of reasons. Firstly, they had told that the children they had with them were orphans and destitute. However, an investigation showed that many of these children had parents, who had sent them away in the hope that they would be shifted to better surroundings. Moreover, rumors of agencies selling children for trafficking purposes added to the confusion, meaning more woes for the missionary group, who stuck to their story of not having any intention of kidnapping the children.

The ones who had been held in custody were Laura Silsby and nine other missionaries, and Judge Bernard Saint-Vil declared that they would not be tried for criminal associations or intentions or kidnapping. However, he said that they would be facing the court on the charges of arranging irregular travel. However, the reasons for the decision on the case that has been running for almost four months now are not known, and the judge did not divulge the details either.