Ten Americans from a church group were being held Sunday in Haiti, after they tried to bus 33 children out of the country, just as stories of possible child trafficking are being told in the country.
The church members said they were trying to take traumatized children to the Dominican Republic, but officials say they lacked the proper documents.
The group was arrested Friday night in a bus along with the children, aged 2 months to 12 years.
The church group said they were taking the children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.
"In this chaos the government is in right now, we were just trying to do the right thing," the group's spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, told The Associated Press in Port-au-Prince.
The group is being held before a Monday hearing with a judge. No charges have been laid.
The Baptist church group was planning to take up to 100 children and take them by bus to a 45-room hotel in the Dominican Republic, which would be converted into an orphanage, Silsby said.
In 2007, intergovernmental International Organization for Migration reported that fake adoption agencies were selling children to rich Haitians and foreigners for as much as US$10,000.
Silsby said her group paid no money for the children and they were obtained from a Haitian pastor named Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries.
Solveig Routier, of Plan International, told CTV News Channel Sunday afternoon that is of the utmost importance that aid agencies follow the laws of the country they are in, even if they have the best intentions.
She also said she had heard the stories of child trafficking.
‘Poverty is quite high, after the earthquake people are in quite desperate situations," she said in a telephone interview from Port-Au-Prince.
Routier said Haiti's system must be followed, as some children may be orphans, but have other relatives in the country.
With files from The Associated Press
