Human Rights Watch reported Monday that the Trump administration has since late July deported hundreds of Haitians — some with pending asylum claims — with little or no support in a country wracked by violence and and an unstable government.
“The United States is returning people, some with pending asylum claims, to a country that doesn’t have the capacity to protect them from violence, let alone help them find food and shelter,” said Nathalye Cotrino, senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The US government should immediately halt these removals.”
HRW officials said the U.S. must pass House-approved legislation that would reinstate and extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. But S. 4814, has stalled in the Senate.
TPS allowed Haitians to stay safely and be authorized to work in the U.S. Due to the ongoing political and humanitarian crises in Haiti, this status was repeatedly extended until July 27 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration's decision to terminate the immigration program. About 350,000 Haitian immigrants — including 158,00 in Florida — have lost their TPS visas.
READ MORE: Haiti On The Line: The TPS Emergency
Deported Haitians tell their stories
More than 450 people have been deported from the U.S. to Haiti since July, say HRW representatives, who cite data from Haiti’s National Office for Migration (Office National de la Migration).
HRW researchers said they visited Cap-Haïtien in the last week of August and interviewed 44 Haitian deportees who had arrived on the first two deportation flights following the end of TPS. They also spoke with U.S. and Haitian governments, United Nations agencies, and other sources to track the deportations.
Cap-Haïtien, a city on Haiti’s northern coast, is the only viable point of entry for flights because criminal groups have made the airport in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, unsafe, HRW officials said.
Most people interviewed, said HRW representatives, fled Haiti because of the country’s longstanding security and humanitarian crises, which have only worsened over the years. They came from several states, including Florida, New York, Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
One 46-year-old Haitian man, who lived in Miami, told HRW he did not understand why he had been detained as he left home for work.
“I worked, paid taxes, went to my immigration appointments, and waited for my asylum case," he said. "Later, they told me that I had a removal order. I had never heard about that order before. I kept asking for a lawyer, but nobody helped me.”
HRW staff did not identify the man by name to protect his identity.
Miami and South Florida is home to the largest concentration of Haitian immigrants in the U.S.
Deported Haitians receive $77 in Haiti
Deported Haitians from the U.S., said HRW officials, were given food and drink upon arrival at the Cap-Haïtien airport, and handed about 10,000 Haitian gourdes (US$77) in cash.
HRW officials said Haitian authorities and humanitarian agencies "do not offer sustained shelter, health care, transportation, protection, or reintegration support" and that deportees, following registration, "were left to fend for themselves."
Another Haitian deportee interviewed by HRW representatives was a 38-year-old man who worked at a hotel in Miam before being kicked out of the country on Aug. 20.
The man told HRW representatives that he had been stranded in Cap-Haïtien for more than a week because he did not have enough money to reach reach his relatives in Jacmel, which is in the southern part of the country.
“To reach Jacmel, I may have to travel through areas controlled by criminal groups, where people are stopped, extorted, kidnapped, or killed,” he told HRW. “I fled Haiti to save my life. Now they have sent me back here to die.”
“Deportees are being returned to spreading violence and severe hunger and then left without shelter, safe transportation, or meaningful support,” said HRW's Cotrino. “The United States should be protecting these people, not compounding the suffering they have already endured.”
Read the latest Human Rights Watch report on Haiti deportees here.
