Say Anything Blog

Weasel Words From Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Thank you for your message to Secretary Clinton sharing your thoughts and concerns. We value your opinion and will take it and the views of all Americans into consideration.

Secretary Clinton addressed this situation during recent remarks.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, trafficking of human beings, particularly of children, is a problem across the world. And it’s something that every nation should be addressing. The Haitian nation acted to protect children who were being removed from their country without appropriate documentation.

We have worked with the Haitian Government over the last two and a half weeks, three weeks, to help facilitate and transport children who are properly documented as having an adoptive family or guardianship awaiting them. So we know how to do this in the right way. And it was unfortunate that, whatever the motivation, that this group of Americans took matters into their own hands.

As you know, they have been charged with breaking the laws of Haiti. And we are engaged in discussions with the Haitian Government about the appropriate disposition of their cases. They’ve been granted consular access.

We are providing them the services that any American citizen who is detained is entitled to, and we will be working through the questions that the Haitian Government has and that - and looking for the best way forward on this.

But I would just end by underscoring that trafficking in human beings is a form of modern slavery, it is an abuse of the human dignity and the autonomy of individuals, and it’s particularly egregious when it takes children and either puts them into bonded trade or sells them for adoption or abuses them in other ways. So we take this very seriously.

Thank you for contacting the U.S. Department of State.”