More than 70 Haitians expelled from the United States have been sent back to Haiti on the first deportation flight since armed gangs launched a bloody insurgency, plunging the capital into chaos, The Guardian reports.
The flight, which landed in the port city of Cap-Haitien early Thursday morning, was labelled “inhumane” by human rights activists who said the deportees were likely to be targeted by the criminal gangs that control much of the country.
Nicole Phillips, legal director of the refugee advocacy group the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said:
“This is reckless and cruel. These people are being sent back to an impossible situation where there is no work, no healthcare and no schools to send their children to. On top of that, there is also no real Haitian government to consent to the flight, and no one who can keep these people safe.”
Chaos has swept Haiti since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021, but over the past two months the country’s deep crises have peaked as gangs have joined forces to unleash an unprecedented wave of brutal violence.
In March, the US airlifted embassy staff and other non-essential citizens out of Haiti, and State Department spokesman Matthew Miller claimed:
“The security situation in Haiti remains untenable due to the violence caused by gangs that claim to represent the Haitian people but thrive on violence and misery.”
Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry has left office and a transitional council has been formed, but conditions remain equally dire: deadly shootings occur daily, 4 million people regularly go hungry, and the health care system is on its knees.
Heavily-armed militants continued their reign of terror in the country on Thursday, reportedly shooting dead eight civilians in the Carrefour neighbourhood in the west of the capital and taking control of a police station.
Diego Da Rin, a Haiti analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the anarchy is expected to worsen further as gangs reacted to Tuesday’s announcement to appoint members of a transitional council to choose Henry’s successor. He noted:
“The gangs have been increasingly occupying, looting or burning down medical facilities, schools, shops and house. If they continue to blockade the ports and the capital’s airport, the lack of supplies and food could seriously worsen the humanitarian crisis in Port-au-Prince and the rest of the country.”
Phillips says the US is likely to have sent the migrants to the north of the country because the capital is logistically impossible to reach due to a lack of law and order.
In the past, US deportations to Haiti have stopped when the country was in crisis, but the upcoming election means Joe Biden is using Haitians to appear tough on migration, Phillips said. She also added:
“Once again Haitians are the pawns in this political game – and the consequences will be dire for them.”
