Most ‘orphans’ taken in Chad by charity have parents

MOST of the 103 African “orphans” a French charity tried to fly to Europe from Chad appear to have at least one living parent, it emerged yesterday.

The findings strengthen French government doubts over claims by the little- known Zoe’s Ark group that the children were being rescued from the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

Aid agency workers who interviewed the children said the majority came from villages in the Chad-Sudan border region.

“Ninety-one of the children referred to a family environment made up of at least one adult person whom they consider as a parent,” said a joint statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNICEF and UNHCR.

They said several days of talks with 21 girls and 81 boys aged between one and 10 “suggest that 85 of them come from villages in the border region between Chad and Sudan”.

Zoe’s Ark was stopped last week from flying the children to foster parents in Europe. Some reports claim many of the children were actually being offered for adoption.

Seventeen Europeans have been arrested by the Chadian authorities, including six French citizens who were charged with kidnapping.

The incident has focused attention on the possibility African children were being taken abroad by sex or child labour gangs exploiting poor policing surrounding international adoptions.

A host of international aid groups have condemned the Zoe’s Ark campaign — including Save the Children and Oxfam — as an abuse of human rights.