Minnesotan also encounters Haitian orphan issue

Minnesotan also encounters Haitian orphan issue

He helped 9-year-old flee quake zone but says actions appropriate

By Richard Chin

rchin@pioneerpress.com

Updated: 02/05/2010 11:14:38 PM CST

Ten Americans with an Idaho Baptist organization are facing child abduction charges because they allegedly tried to take children out of Haiti to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic without government approval.

Did a Minnesota man do something similar?

David Preiner is a 24-year-old from Centerville, Minn., who lives and works in the Dominican Republic. The day after the Jan. 12 earthquake hit the neighboring island country of Haiti, Preiner helped truck bottled water into the shattered nation.

On Jan. 24, he returned to Haiti bringing an even bigger load of water and then returned home to the Dominican Republic with something else: a 9-year-old boy.

According to a news release he e-mailed on Jan. 27, Preiner was distributing water in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince when he met a Jesuit priest from the United States, Jim Boynton, who was working with a medical aid group called Team Rubicon.

"In this medical area David Preiner discovered a young orphan boy with his face covered in tears," according to Preiner's e-mail. "Jim insisted that it would be best for the boy named Dikens age 9, if Preiner and his crew brought him back to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

"After a slight hesitation, Preiner agreed. Jim then turned to the boy and asked in Creole if he wanted to go with Preiner. Dikens approved with a look of relief," the news release said.

After distributing about 20,000 bottles of water, Preiner returned to the Dominican

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Republic with the boy. They were stopped by Dominican troops, who interviewed the boy and allowed them to pass.

In his e-mail, Preiner describes taking Dikens home, providing him with a shower and a hot meal and then going out with his fiancee to get the boy a haircut, clothing and a medical examination.

"Preiner is exploring the options of both a local orphanage and adoption. Meanwhile, Dikens is currently living in the Preiner home with the support of family and friends," the e-mail said.

In another e-mail Jan. 27, Preiner said adoption of Dikens was a possibility, but "first we are going to search if he has any aunts, uncles or other relatives still alive, who Dikens may not remember."

"On a side note he has been nothing but a great kid, still a little confused at times, but he seems to be adjusting well overall."

In a telephone interview Friday, Preiner said he believed he did nothing wrong by taking the child out of the country without any documentation. He said the priest and several Haitians talked to the boy. The boy told them his parents were dead and he was homeless, Preiner said.

"The crowd is saying, 'Oh, he needs your help,' " Preiner said.

Preiner said the priest also telephoned a lawyer in the Dominican Republic to see if the boy could be taken from the country.

"I believed him to be a credible person at the time," Preiner said.

He said that at the border, Haitian officials just waved them across.

"At the time, it seemed like the best thing to do," Preiner said. "At the time we checked, the best that I could, the legal ramifications. I don't know anything about Dominican laws. I don't know anything about Haitian laws. I was just following the advice of those around me at the time."

But Preiner said that when he later contacted the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic, "They said normally that's not how it works."

"We strongly discourage this kind of action," David Searby, a press officer with the Embassy in the Dominican Republic, said Friday.

Since the earthquake, Haitian officials have made statements about concerns of child trafficking and have said that no matter how generous the intentions, children cannot be removed from the country without proper approval.

According to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic:

Haiti is strictly enforcing its border controls. Taking a child out of Haiti without authorization from the Haitian government is a violation of Haitian law and may result in arrest.

Children who have become separated from their parents in an emergency situation cannot be presumed orphans and are not available for adoption. It is difficult to determine the status of separated and unaccompanied children after a disaster. As long as the fate of a child's parents and/or other close relatives cannot be verified, each separated child must be considered to have close relatives who are still alive.

The American missionaries, who allegedly tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the country, face a potentially long legal ordeal in Haiti and up to 15 years in prison if convicted, according to news reports.

Searby could not comment specifically on Preiner's situation or Dikens' fate.

But Preiner said his actions are different from those of the missionary group arrested in Haiti. The group members have acknowledged that they did not seek approval to remove children from Haiti and had taken some children with at least one living parent, according to news reports.

"They pretty much went on the street and grabbed anybody and everybody," Preiner said.

Preiner said Dikens spent a few days with him before he placed the boy in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

"Now he's in the system," Preiner said. "The U.S. government knows where he is, and the Dominican Republic and the Haitian government know where he is."

And what will happen to him?

"He's going to have to go back to Haiti," Preiner said.

Reach Richard Chin at 651-228-5560.