Government To Speed Up Adoption Process For Haitian Children

The federal government plans to speed up the process for prospective parents hoping to adopt children from Haiti.

The changes will only apply to adoptions that were already underway before the Jan. 12 earthquake, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Wednesday.

Government officials planned to contact would-be parents in about 100 cases by Wednesday afternoon. Partriation fees are being waived and temporary resident permits are being issued in an effort to bring children already in the system to Canada as quickly as possible.

The tragedy sparked thousands of Canadians to inquire about possible adoptions. The federal government received 55,000 calls last Monday, but Kenney said it’s not a good idea to process new applications during a crisis.

“It is a very big mistake to start ad-hoc’ing immigration policy and changing the law when faced with different events,” Kenney said.

“We have a moral obligation to be consistent. We also have an obligation as Canadians to be compassionate. And that’s exactly how we’re responding to this situation.”

The 7.3-magnitude quake hit Haiti last Tuesday, devastating the impoverished Caribbean country. The European Union estimates more than 200,000 people were killed in the disaster that has left approximately 1.5 million people homeless.

With files from the Canadian Press

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