NZ couple ponder negotiating Moroccan return

A week after a New Zealand couple were expelled from Morocco, they are considering staying nearby in Spain to try and negotiate a return to the Village of Hope orphanage.

Aucklanders Chris and Tina Broadbent and their two young children -- along with 14 other Christian aid workers and their own children -- were given 90 minutes to pack and leave the orphanage before being given an armed escort to the border last Monday. Mr Broadbent, a former police officer, and Mrs Broadbent, a teacher, had been voluntarily working at the Village of Hope (VOH) for the last 18 months.

VOH aid workers who had parented orphans in family units had been accused of "proselytising", attempting to convert the beliefs of, the Muslim children in their care -- a charge they deny.

Immediately after their expulsion, the Broadbents planned to return to New Zealand within a fortnight. Now they're "seriously considering" staying on as a family near Malaga in southern Spain to see if the VOH can re-establish itself in Morocco, Mr Broadbent told NZPA overnight.

He said they had not heard directly from the Morocco government why they were expelled, but had been told indirectly that the VOH had been proselytising -- despite it making all its parents and volunteers sign a form saying they would be asked to leave if they proselytised.

"Most of us don't even have enough Arabic or French to preach the gospel anyway, even if we did break our own rules," he said.

"I've got just about enough Arabic to buy a loaf of bread."

The VOH had been operating for 10 years, and some children had been there for their whole life under the care of the same parents until they were taken away by Moroccan authorities last week.

Mr Broadbent, who was human resources manager for the VOH, said the charity had also been accused of taking poor children away from their families, with similarities being drawn with what was happening in Haiti.

"We never went out and took a single child. Every child that came to us was given to us by the birth mother, or the family or the police. And in every case, we did what we could to try to convince the mother to keep the child and do everything we could to support her rather than give the child up," he said.

"Once again it's disinformation out there about our motivations and what we were doing."

While some of the children were given passports and allowed to have holidays with their orphanage parents, they always returned. No children had permanently left Morocco, Mr Broadbent said.

He said the VOH was trying to appeal to Morocco's King Mohammed to intervene and see if there was any hope for its future.

"Really we want to see the parents and the children reunited in any way possible... we want to see those family units put back in place.

"At the moment we're trying to open up lines of communication so that we can hopefully start talking."