After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, many children have been left parentless. As a result, the Canadian government says that it will endeavour to ease the processing of applications filed for the adoption of Haitian orphans.
Since the earthquake, an estimated 1000 adoption cases were short-listed and said to be approved in the near future. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is currently seeking assistance from the Haitian government in order to unite these Haitian children with their anxious Canadian parents. Mr. Kenney, stated, “We are contacting the Haitian authorities to see if there is a streamlined way we can get their approval to extract these children.” Furthermore, he is ready to take the exceptional step of “issuing temporary resident permits to allow the Haitian children to enter Canada before all the legal steps are completed in their adoption.”
However, Minister Kenney is willing to take caution and avoid shortcuts to deter “unscrupulous people” from engaging in the human trafficking of these young children, given Haiti’s current state of vulnerability.
During a news conference in Quebec yesterday, Mr. Kenney stated that, “I know there’s a lot of Canadians who want to help Haitian orphans, and over the long term, we’ll consider how we can work with international organizations to help these orphans in terms of perhaps adopting them in Canada.”
Ottawa granted approximately 5,000 Haitians the opportunity to immigrate to Canada in 2010 alone.
Currently victims of the earthquake are not eligible to apply for asylum in Canada as refugees, because earthquake victims do not meet the international criteria.
Thankfully, Canada has no plans of deporting the 1,900 failed refugee applicants already in Canada nor deport another 8,000 should their request for asylum get denied.
On a positive note, Ottawa, has granted provisional stay to approximately 1,000 temporary residents, including student, workers and visitors by assuring them that they will not be sent home once their visas expires. Approximately 6,000 Haitians will be allowed to come to or remain in Canada.
For aditional information on how to adopt a child in Canada, please make sure you check the links attached.