The Children: Orphaned by the Ocean

Among the most heartbreaking aspects of the tsunami disaster has been the immense toll on children, who account for as many as one-third of the total killed. Now, as refugees register in makeshift camps, the world is confronting a different sort of tragedy: tens of thousands of children have been either separated from their parents or orphaned. These kids, whom relief workers are calling “the Tsunami Generation,” have become prime objects of the global outpouring of sympathy. But they are also drawing some unwanted attention.

Relief workers say many orphans are suffering from both physical and psychological trauma. Martin Dawes, a UNICEF spokesman in Colombo, Sri Lanka, says many are “in a state of denial.” Some who saw their mothers drown, he says, cling to the belief that Mom has just gone to the ocean for a while, and that she will soon return. Protecting children from exploitation is another priority. Previous disasters have demonstrated that kids are targets for gangs involved in human trafficking, which thrives in parts of the region. The issue was thrown into stark relief following reports that a missing 12-year-old Swedish boy, Kristian Walker, may have been abducted in Thailand. The scare turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, but the possibility that kids could be picked off by traffickers remains a pressing concern.

How serious is the threat? Supervisors in at least one refugee center in Sri Lanka report that people have turned up asking if they can buy children. But government officials say they have found no credible evidence of organized trafficking in the country. Indonesian volunteers helping displaced kids in Aceh–where 35,000 or more children have been orphaned or separated from their parents–tell TIME they are approached daily by people falsely claiming to be relatives of the orphans. UNICEF director Carol Bellamy warned of the danger after agency employees in Indonesia received text messages from a group purporting to offer Aceh’s tsunami orphans for adoption.”Bad people take advantage of difficult situations,” Bellamy says. Although the messages themselves could have been hoaxes, the Indonesian government responded by restricting travel for kids and banning adoptions out of Aceh.

Indeed, none of the affected nations are eager to send tsunami orphans abroad. Consulates, adoption agencies and relief organizations in Europe and across the U.S. have fielded hundreds of inquiries from people interested in adopting tsunami victims. The U.S. State Department, for its part, has placed a moratorium on adoptions of tsunami survivors by U.S. citizens. For one thing, not all the displaced children are necessarily orphans. Some newly single parents may have dropped off their kids at shelters as they surveyed the ruins of their houses and lives. Other parents may still be alive but were separated from their children during the chaos of the flood. “For every story about an orphan,” says Paul Deveril, a UNICEF project officer in India, “there’s also a story about a parent searching for their child.” Then, too, child-welfare experts strive to place orphans in new homes within their extended families and communities. “The children have been through a massive shock,” says Christiane Sebenne of Enfance et Familles d’Adoption, a French agency. “We shouldn’t make life even harder by uprooting them.”

Those who still want to help have options. Both the French and Italian governments have set up programs that will allow people to sponsor tsunami orphans. In the U.S., the Christian mission Gospel for Asia, based in Carrollton, Texas, is raising funds to build 10 “transition homes” in Sri Lanka alone. But there’s also the risk that with so many bereft children, local governments won’t be able to find new homes for all of them, which could make thousands of orphans permanent wards of their respective states. Perhaps then their adoption by foreigners will not seem such a bad idea. –By Unmesh Kher. Reported by Aravind Adiga/Colombo, Maryann Bird/London, Zamira Loebis/Jakarta, Andrew Marshall/Khao Lak, Adam Pitluk/Dallas and Jonathan Shenfield/Paris