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Baptist group warned away from plans to sneak children out of Haiti, called “unconscionable”
From the Wall Street Journal:
But more reports surfaced Wednesday that the group was warned away from its plan. Carlos Castillo, the Dominican Republic’s consul general in Port-au-Prince, said in an interview that he met with the group’s leader, Laura Silsby, on Friday at the consulate in the Haitian capital and told her she lacked the documents to transport children.
She told Mr. Castillo she had applied to Dominican authorities for a permit to cross the border, he said. But Mr. Castillo checked and found no such application. “I told her I could authenticate Haitian documents but she had no Haitian documents of any sort,” said Mr. Castillo. “She told me she would try to reach the border in order to cross. I told her not to do that without the necessary documents because she could be accused of trafficking children.”
Mr. Castillo said that at the border Ms. Silsby showed Haitian authorities his business card and said he had authorized her to cross. Border authorities called him and he denied it.
Steve Hersey, director of the Quisqueya Christian School in Port-au-Prince, said by email that he told Ms. Silsby’s group that their plan was “unconscionable” when they approached the school looking for help. He added, “It was clear they had little understanding of Haiti law and customs.”
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