The UN's office of the high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) warned this week that Haitian children separated from their families risked being sold, trafficked or kept in slave-like conditions.

"Protection of children must be at the heart of the relief operation in Haiti," a group of UN human rights experts said in a statement on Tuesday.

This required as much backing as necessary from the European Union, according to Catherine Bearder, a British member of the European Parliament. She said EU member states should be doing their utmost to assist the efforts to help these children on the ground in Haiti.

"What we should be doing is supporting the people who are working with those children, supplying money or whatever is needed for the orphanages: food, shelter, care or training for the staff," Bearder told Deutsche Welle.

In the first few days following the earthquake, EU states sent emergency teams to the Caribbean nation. Now, the same should occur with childcare specialists, she said.

"They should be able to go sponsored by part of the funding we're giving," Bearder said.

The EU has already offered more than 400 million euros ($560 million) to Haiti. About half will be redirected from funds previously earmarked for the Caribbean nation.

Central database

Humanitarian organizations are now focusing their efforts on registering the tens of thousands of unaccompanied and separated children in Haiti. The priority was trying to reunite these children with their families, said Rebecca Fordham, UNICEF's child protection communication specialist.

"This means all children must have proper documentation to avoid any kind of abuse," Fordham told Deutsche Welle.

Ruben Wedel from the German children's relief organization Kindernothilfe said the chaotic situation in Haiti made controls very difficult. These made registration even more imperative.

"If no one knows that these children exist, then no one will miss them," Wedel said.

Adoption freeze

Since the earthquake on January 12, foreign couples seeking babies for adoption have been pushing for procedures to be fast-tracked to allow them to rescue orphans from the humanitarian disaster.

But Fordham said inter-country adoptions were only an option "in the long term." UN guidelines recommend that at least two years are spent tracing lost families before adoption should be considered.

"UNICEF and its partners believe that at this time, registration is the key and speeding up adoption processes would not be appropriate," Fordham said.

Bearder said the best thing to ensure the safety of these children was to keep them in Haiti. She called for a moratorium on adoption as long as chaotic conditions persisted.

"The best thing for the children is to stay put, to be properly cared for there, protected and to have their support networks," Bearder said. Should family members come forward, it was important that the children remain in the country.

"Once you take the child away from that environment, the possibility of being reunited is diminished enormously," Bearder said.

Europe concerned about children's safety

Last week, the European Commission warned against fast-track adoptions of children from Haiti. The EU justice commissioner's spokesman Michele Cercone said the safety of the children were the main priority.

"We are confronted by a difficult situation," Cercone told reporters. On the one hand, accelerated adoption procedures were seen by several EU nations "as a good way of trying to help the children of Haiti," he said.

However, it was also difficult to understand these children's situation, even those who have lost their parents, he said.

Adoption now would probably "not be the best idea," Cercone said.

However, several EU countries have said they will speed up adoption procedures that were already under way before the earthquake hit Haiti, including Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.

Author: Sabina Casagrande
Editor: Michael Knigge