Ten US citizens and two Haitians accompanied by 33 children have been arrested on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic on suspicion of child trafficking. 

An international organisation in Haiti which provided shelter to the 33 children says most of them still have parents or other relatives. The suspects say they were acting on behalf of a US charity, and were taking the children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic at the request of a pastor in Port-au-Prince. The Haitian authorities say the US citizens did not have the proper documents or parental authorisation to take the children out of the country.

One of the children, a seven-month old baby was admitted to hospital with symptoms of malnutrition. UN children's organisation UNICEF says children have been disappearing from hospitals since the earthquake.

US troops have resumed the evacuation of critically injured Haitians. Operations had been stopped due to a row about who would pay for their care.

US hospitals, especially in Florida, demanded that Washington agree that the costs of care would be reimbursed. The White House says that arrangments have now been made about care for the severely injured in the US itself and several other countries.

Emergency hospitals in Haiti are bursting at the seams and hundreds of critically injured people need to be transferred to well-equipped hospitals outside Haiti if they are to survive. 

Photo: Haitian children (Flickr/UN)