The opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) is urging the government to relax restrictions that stand in the way of citizens adopting children from abroad, in order to allow people to take in Haitian children who lost their families in last week’s earthquake.
In the days following the disaster, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dame Bridget Harris, urged residents to take in Haitian orphans and the response has been overwhelming.
And while the Baldwin Spencer administration has not followed the lead of some of its Caribbean neighbours which have eased immigration restrictions for those coming in from Haiti, the ALP has suggested it should consider making it easier for locals to adopt Haitian children at this time.
“Because thousands of young children in Haiti have now been left orphaned by the death of their parents, relatives and neighbours, and since so many homes and buildings in Haiti have been destroyed, the number of children requiring a home and loving parents has ballooned following the earthquake,” it said in a statement issued yesterday.
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