UPDATE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRES (MARCH 03, 2004)

• The Canadian Embassy in Haiti is strongly discouraging prospective adoptive parents to travel to Haiti to fetch their children.
Please see the Department of Foreign Affairs travel advisory for more information at:
http://www.voyage.gc.ca/main/sos/ci/cur-en.asp?txt_ID=409

• For parents who are already in Haiti, Citizenship and Immigration's last remaining visa officer in Port-au-Prince is assisting and expediting cases of adopted children where it is clear that:

1. The province has approved the adoption;
2. The guardianship has been passed to the Canadian parents;
3. The parents have signed an acknowledgement that they are aware of the medical condition of the child; and
4. The child has a Haitian passport (required by the Haitian authorities to allow the child to leave Haiti).

Anything less than this would leave Canada open to the risk of failing to meet its international and domestic obligations to ensure that the adoptions are legal and in the best interests of the child. To date, the Canadian Embassy has been unable to secure the cooperation of the Haitian authorities to facilitate the legal departure of children who do not have Haitian passports.

• Some parents in Canada have called for the evacuation of their adopted children. The current military assisted evacuations of Canadians from Port-au-Prince to Santo-Domingo are too rapid and too unpredictable to offer practical solutions that would ensure the care and safety of young unaccompanied children. The operations could be suspended at any time due to security reasons, flights could be unable to leave for long periods of time, or could be redirected to another destination at a very short notice.

• The Canadian Government cannot take the responsibility for exposing these children to unnecessary risks. Therefore the Canadian Government has advised that without the legal authority to leave Haiti and a visa to enter Canada based on the criteria above, they cannot board a child nor can they board without the parent who can establish the identity of the child, the relationship between the parent and the child and accompany the child.

• Security experts on the ground state that reaching Port-au-Prince and its airport is a very dangerous endeavour. The current Canadian military staff in Port-au-Prince cannot ensure the security of persons who try to reach the airport. They have advised that young children are probably more secure if they remain at the orphanages with their current guardians until the circumstances improve.

• In the absence of a functioning government, Canadian officials are trying to work with their contacts in Haiti to resolve the issue of travel documents for the children and eventually facilitate their departure with their adoptive parents once all the adoption requirements have been met and it is safe to travel to Haiti again.

• Adoptive parents should not travel to Haiti or the Dominican Republic before they are informed to do so by Canadian officials. As soon as the situation in Haiti will allow it, and when it will be possible for adopted children to travel to Canada, adoptive parents will be contacted by Canadian officials.