All new adoptions of children separated from their families by the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti must be halted immediately, three leading British charities say.
Save The Children, World Vision and the British Red Cross want an immediate moratorium on new adoptions of children following last week's quake until extended efforts have been made to trace and reunite them with their families.
They say that if adoptions are not stopped, there could be a risk of families being broken up forever. The quake is said to have killed between 100,000 and 200,000 people.
"Taking children out of the country would permanently separate thousands of children from their families - a separation that would compound the acute trauma they are already suffering," said Jasmine Whitbread, Save The Children's chief executive on Wednesday.
World Vision chief executive Justin Byworth added: "Children should not be leaving Haiti at this stage except with surviving family members or if adoptions already in process have full required legal documents."
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Countries including France and Canada have fast-tracked adoption processes to allow hundreds of Haitian children to be settled with new families.
France has been notably cautious, with Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner saying the country "must not be accused of kidnapping" and processing being sped up for children who were already in the process of being adopted.
In a sensitive case in 2007, six members of a French aid charity were convicted of trying to traffic to France 103 Chadian children who they said were refugees from the war in Darfur.
