{"id":26258,"date":"2024-04-19T06:21:16","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T11:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=26258"},"modified":"2024-04-19T06:21:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T11:21:27","slug":"us-resumes-deportation-flights-to-haiti-despite-continuing-bloodshed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=26258","title":{"rendered":"US resumes deportation flights to Haiti despite continuing bloodshed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Critics condemn \u2018reckless and cruel\u2019 expulsions and say deportees likely to be targeted by armed gangs who control much of country<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 70 Haitians expelled from the United States have been flown back to Haiti<\/a> on the first deportation flight since heavily armed gangs launched a bloody insurrection which has paralysed the capital and forced the prime minister from office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flight, which landed in the port city of Cap-Ha\u00eftien early on Thursday, was described as \u201cinhumane\u201d by human rights activists who warned that deportees would likely be targeted by the criminal factions who control most of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is reckless and cruel,\u201d said Nicole Phillips, legal director of the refugee advocacy group the Haitian Bridge Alliance. \u201cThese 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haiti has been in turmoil since President Jovenel Mo\u00efse was assassinated in July 2021, but in the past two months the country\u2019s deep, overlapping crises have reached new lows as the gangs have joined forces to unleash an unprecedented wave of brutal violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US airlifted non-essential embassy personnel and other citizens from Haiti<\/a> late last month, with state department spokesperson Matthew Miller, saying: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acting prime minister, Ariel Henry, has since stepped down<\/a> and a transitional council has been formed, but conditions remain equally dire with deadly gun skirmishes a daily occurrence, 4 million people regularly going hungry and the public health system on its knees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heavily armed gunmen continued to wage terror on the country on Thursday, reportedly shooting dead eight civilians<\/a> in the Carrefour neighbourhood in the western limits of the capital and taking control of a police station.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anarchy is expected to deteriorate further as gangs respond to Tuesday\u2019s announcement that members of a transitional council had been appointed to choose Henry\u2019s successor, said Diego Da Rin, a Haiti analyst at the International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe gangs have been increasingly occupying, looting or burning down medical facilities, schools, shops and houses,\u201d Da Rin said. \u201cIf they continue to blockade the ports and the capital\u2019s airport, the lack of supplies and food could seriously worsen the humanitarian crisis in Port-au-Prince and the rest of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US most likely flew migrants to the north of the country as the capital is logistically impossible to reach given the lack of law and order, Phillips said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Cap-Ha\u00eftien may be far from the violence in Port-au-Prince, most of the deportees are not from the far north of the country, so will have to risk travelling through active conflict zones and gang-controlled checkpoints to get to their homes and families, Phillips said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their perceived connections to the US also make them vulnerable targets to gangs who extort, kidnap and torture for financial gain, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce gangs realise that deportation flights are coming into the north of the country, operations will be set up to take advantage of these people \u2026 the US is actively putting people in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US deportations to Haiti have been halted in the past when the country was in crisis, but upcoming elections mean Joe Biden<\/a> is using Haitians to look tough on migration, Phillips said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce again Haitians are the pawns in this political game \u2013 and the consequences will be dire for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yvette D Clarke, a Democratic congresswoman and the co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus, said the decision to resume deportations was \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaiti is experiencing extreme political instability, rampant violence, and insecurity beyond imagine,\u201d Clarke tweeted.<\/a> \u201cWe should be focusing on finding solutions to prevent suffering without putting people at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Critics condemn \u2018reckless and cruel\u2019 expulsions and say deportees likely to be targeted by armed gangs who control much of country More than 70 Haitians expelled from the United States have been flown back to Haiti on the first deportation flight since heavily armed gangs launched a bloody insurrection which has paralysed the capital and forced the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":26259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[27896,8535,6236,2054,21056],"class_list":["post-26258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-bleeding","tag-eviction","tag-flights","tag-haiti","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26260,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26258\/revisions\/26260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}