The first deportation flight since highly armed gangs began a deadly insurgency that has paralyzed the city and removed the prime minister has transported more than 70 evicted Haitians back to their homeland.
Human rights groups referred to the aircraft as “inhumane” after it touched down early on April 18, 2024, in the port city of Cap-Haïtien. They cautioned that the criminal gangs who dominate much of the nation would probably target the deportees.
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“This is reckless and cruel,” stated Nicole Phillips, the legal director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for refugees. “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.”
Following the murder of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, Haiti has been in a state of constant crisis. However, in the last two months, gangs have united to unleash an unparalleled wave of terrible violence, plunging the nation’s profound and overlapping issues to new depths.
According to State Department spokeswoman Matthew Miller, the US flew non-essential embassy staff and other residents from Haiti late last month: “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.”
A transitional council was established when interim prime minister Aaron Henry resigned, but the situation is still grave—deadly gunfights occur daily, 4 million people frequently go without food, and the public health system is in disarray.
Recently, heavily armed individuals reportedly carried out acts of terror around the nation, killing eight citizens in the Carrefour neighborhood at the western edge of the city and seizing a police station.
Diego Da Rin, an international crisis group analyst specializing in Haiti, said that the chaos would intensify even further when gangs reacted to the news that members of a transitional council had been named to select Henry’s replacement.
“The gangs have been increasingly occupying, looting, or burning down medical facilities, schools, shops, and houses,” Da Rin stated. “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.”
Since the capital is logistically hard to access given the absence of law and order, the US most likely flew people to the country’s north, according to Phillips.
Even though Cap-Haïtien is distant from Port-au-Prince’s violence, most deportees are not from the country’s far north, thus to reach their homes and families, they will have to take the chance of passing through gang-controlled checkpoints and active combat zones, according to Phillips.
She said that because of their alleged ties to the US, they are also easy prey for gangs who use extortion, kidnapping, and torture to get money.
“Once gangs realize that deportation flights are coming into the north of the country, operations will be set up to take advantage of these people … The US is actively putting people in harm’s way.”
When Haiti was experiencing a crisis, US deportations were stopped, but Phillips said that Joe Biden was using Haitians as a political football to seem tough on immigration ahead of the 2017 elections.
“Once again Haitians are the pawns in this political game – and the consequences will be dire for them,” she said.
Co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus and Democratic representative Yvette D. Clarke stated that the decision to start deportations again was “unacceptable”.
“Haiti is experiencing extreme political instability, rampant violence, and insecurity beyond imagine,” Clarke tweeted on social media platform X. “We should be focusing on finding solutions to prevent suffering without putting people at risk.”
