Ten US citizens arrested in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after last month's earthquake have been charged with child kidnapping.

Most of whom are members of an Idaho-based church group, the ten citizens were sent back to jail on Thursday after a closed court hearing in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

They have denied any ill-intent, saying they only wanted to help those children left orphaned or abandoned by the January 12 quake which ravaged the Caribbean nation, leaving one million people homeless.

On January 29, the missionaries from the Baptist charity New Life Children's Refuge were detained as they attempted to cross into the Dominican Republic with a busload of children aged from two months to 12 years old.

Haitian Justice Minister Paul Denis said on Wednesday that the 10 suspects should be tried in Haiti, adding that he saw "no reason" why they should be sent to the United States for trial.