A group of ten American Baptists have been accused of child trafficking in Haiti after they were caught trying to take 33 children and babies aged between two and 12 month.

The group will appear in court today under child trafficking charges. However the church members have defended themselves by saying, we were aiming to take the youngsters to the Dominican Republic where they can be adopted.

Government leaders have suspended adoptions amid fears that orphans or lost children are becoming vulnerable to trafficking.

Haiti’s social affairs minister Yves Cristallin said: “This is an abduction, not an adoption. A child needs to have an authorisation from this ministry to leave the country.” Detainee Sean Lankford, whose wife and 18-year-old daughter are also being held, reported that US diplomats had visited them.

He said: “Allegations of child trafficking couldn’t be further from the truth. The children were going to get medical attention. They were going to get clothes, food and the love they need to be healthy and to start recovering from the tragedy.”

A spokesman for the group said: “In this chaos we were just trying to do the right thing.”

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