Category Archives: Haiti

Group of 17 missionaries and family members kidnapped in Haiti

Posted on by

Five children were among group of 16 US citizens and one Canadian abducted by gang members after orphanage visit

A group of 17 missionaries, including five children, have been kidnapped by an armed criminal gang in Haiti.

The group – 16 Americans and one Canadian citizen – were on their way home from building an orphanage, according to a statement from the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, which supports 9,000 children in Haitian schools and sent out a message asking supporters to pray for its members.

Continue reading...

‘Who wouldn’t want out?’: migrants deported to Haiti face challenge of survival

Posted on by

Many returned to a country they had not seen for years, and many are already plotting another escape as gang violence has left Haiti on the brink of civil war

When Reynold Joseph was deported from the US back to Haiti after five years in South America, he was unprepared for just how bad things had become in his homeland.

Outside a ramshackle guesthouse near downtown Port-au-Prince, where he and a dozen other deportees are staying, some goats were grazing on burning piles of rubbish, while drivers honked and cursed in a queue for petrol that snaked round the block. Each night, Joseph’s three-year-old son stirs in the sweltering heat, and bursts of gunfire ring out in the distance.

Continue reading...

Senior state department official calls Biden’s deportation of Haitians illegal

Posted on by

Harold Koh, a legal adviser and Obama administration veteran, criticises use of health protocol to expel thousands of migrants

A senior legal adviser in the state department has accused the Biden administration of deporting Haitians illegally through the use of a public health law.

Harold Koh, a veteran of the Obama administration, had been due to leave government service to take up a teaching position at Oxford University. He wrote a letter to the state department leadership, lambasting the expulsions of thousands of Haitians in recent weeks.

Continue reading...

Biden is treating migrants little better than Trump did. That’s shameful | Xochitl Oseguera

Posted on by

We thought the days when our country treated asylum-seekers with cruelty and disdain might be ending. This month we learned we were wrong

We thought the days when our country treated asylum-seekers with cruelty and disdain might be ending. This month we learned we were wrong.

Most of us were shaken and horrified, and the country rightfully embarrassed, by images of US border patrol agents on horseback attacking asylum seekers, including at least one child, in Texas. Thankfully, that has been stopped and an investigation is now underway. We need more than an investigation, though: we need to know that nothing like that will ever happen again.

Continue reading...

Haiti deportations justified because of Covid, Biden homeland secretary says

Posted on by

The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s decision to send thousands of Haitians to a home country they fled because of natural disasters and political turmoil.

Related: White House criticizes border agents who rounded up migrants on horseback

Continue reading...

‘They treated us like animals’: Haitians angry and in despair at being deported from US

Posted on by

Haitian deportees arriving from Texas say they were ‘rounded up like cattle and shackled like criminals’

When Evens Delva waded across the Rio Grande with his wife and two daughters, he had dreams of starting a new life in Florida. But less than a week later, he and his family stepped on to the tarmac in Port-au-Prince, the sweltering and chaotic capital of Haiti, with nothing except traumatic memories and a feeling of bubbling anger.

Delva, along with nearly 2,000 other Haitians, was deported from southern Texas this week to Haiti, despite having lived in Chile for the past six years and having few remaining connections to his home country. His younger daughter, who is four, does not hold Haitian citizenship, having been born in Chile, and speaks more Spanish than Haitian Creole.

Continue reading...

Haitians fleeing and Hotel Rwanda case: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

Posted on by

A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Germany

Continue reading...

‘People will pay’ for harsh treatment of migrants at Texas border, says Biden – video

Posted on by

Joe Biden has said there will be repercussions for border patrol agents over their harsh treatment of Haitian migrants at the southern US border between Texas and Mexico, calling it an embarrassment to the nation. Images of agents on horseback corralling migrants in Del Rio as thousands tried to enter the US drew international attention. The president said he bears ultimate responsibility for the situation

Continue reading...

Haitian migrants and refugees cross the Rio Grande – in pictures

Posted on by

In the past few weeks more than 12,000 Haitians have arrived in Del Rio, Texas, gathering in a huge makeshift camp. Many have to cross the Rio Grande from Del Rio to Ciudad Acuña to seek food and supplies in Mexico to bring back to family members waiting in the US. Others are crossing back into Mexico to avoid deportation flights

Continue reading...

Migrants continue to cross into US as Kamala Harris criticises treatment by border patrol – video

Posted on by

Thousands of Haitians encamped under and near a bridge in the town of Del Rio faced a ramped-up US exclusion effort on Tuesday, with six flights to their homeland. More than 6,000 migrants had been removed by Monday, officials said.

Asked on Tuesday about footage of the incident, Kamala Harris said: 'What I saw depicted, those individuals on horseback treating human beings the way they were, was horrible'


Continue reading...

Kamala Harris on expulsions at US border: ‘Human beings should never be treated that way’

Posted on by

Vice-president criticizes treatment of Haitians, who are being removed after attempted to flee dire conditions

Kamala Harris and Chuck Schumer, have added their voices to criticism of the treatment of Haitian migrants at the US-Mexico border who were corralled by US border patrol agents riding horses and allegedly wielding reins like whips.

Related: White House criticizes border agents who rounded up migrants on horseback

Continue reading...

White House criticizes border agents who rounded up migrants on horseback

Posted on by

Press secretary voices concern over widely shared images as more than 6,000 migrants removed from Texas encampment

The White House on Monday responded critically to widely shared images of US border patrol agents in Texas rounding up Haitian migrants on horseback.

Related: Haitian migrants intend to remain at Texas border despite plan to expel them

Continue reading...

Haitian migrants intend to remain at Texas border despite plan to expel them

Posted on by

Thousands seeking to escape poverty and hunger in their own country remain encamped under and near a bridge in Del Rio

Haitian migrants seeking to escape poverty, hunger and hopelessness in their home country said they would not be deterred by US plans to swiftly send them back, as thousands remained encamped on the Texas border.

Related: How thousands of Haitian migrants ended up at the Texas border

Continue reading...

US to fly Haitian migrants back after thousands gather at Texas border

Posted on by

Plan will likely involve five to eight flights a day, with San Antonio potentially among departure cities

The Biden administration on Saturday was working on plans to send many of the thousands of Haitian immigrants who have gathered in a Texas border city back to their homeland, a swift response to the huge influx of people who suddenly crossed from Mexico and congregated under and around a bridge.

Related: ‘A forgotten disaster’: earthquake-hit Haitians left to fend for themselves

Continue reading...

Aerial footage shows scale of makeshift migrant camp under Texas bridge – video

Posted on by

On Saturday the US government worked on plans to send many of the thousands of Haitian immigrants who have gathered in a Texas border city back to their Caribbean homeland. Aerial video from local media showed Haitians crossing the Rio Grande freely and in a steady stream on Friday, going back and forth between the US and Mexico through knee-deep water, with some parents carrying small children on their shoulders. People pitched tents and built shelters from giant reeds. Many bathed and washed clothing in the river

Continue reading...

How thousands of Haitian migrants ended up at the Texas border

Posted on by

Gang violence, bloody protests, food and fuel shortages plus natural disasters have spurred many to leave the west’s poorest nation

Every night Guy would fall asleep to the sound of gunfire: warring gangs in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, were fighting pitched battles in the city centre.

By day, the country was roiled by bloody protests against food and fuel shortages. Roadblocks with burning tyres were commonplace, and the police responded with tear gas and billy clubs.

Continue reading...

‘A forgotten disaster’: earthquake-hit Haitians left to fend for themselves

Posted on by

With rural areas of the country left to suffer, aid workers fear funds are drying up as global compassion fatigue sets in

David Nazaire, a 45-year-old coffee farmer from Beaumont, a small village in rural southern Haiti, was getting ready to harvest when an earthquake struck his home and livelihood. Much of the farming infrastructure – as well as nearby homes, schools and churches – was damaged or completely destroyed. A month later, he and thousands of rural Haitians – those most severely affected by the tremor – are still waiting for relief, and are not expecting it to arrive soon.

“The earthquake didn’t destroy our crops, but it did take everything else,” Nazaire says, outside a neighbour’s house, now a pile of rubble beneath plastic roof tiles supported by the remnants of concrete walls. “We were just getting ready to harvest, but that’s lost now.”

Continue reading...

Haiti prosecutor calls for prime minister to be charged over president’s killing

Posted on by

Ariel Henry, 71-year-old neurosurgeon, became country’s leader in July, two weeks after assassination of Jovenel Moïse

The investigation into the assassination of the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse has taken a sensational turn after the country’s chief prosecutor asked a judge to charge Haiti’s prime minister in connection with the crime.

Ariel Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon, became Haiti’s principal leader in July, two weeks after Moïse was killed at his home in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Continue reading...

‘I don’t see my mum’: Haiti’s earthquake leaves new generation of orphans

Posted on by

The number of children without carers is still not known, leaving them prey to gangs and abuse

Lilian, six years old and alone, still asks when her mother will return from the market on the edge of Les Cayes in southern Haiti.

When last month’s earthquake struck, Lilian was at home, occasionally checked on by her neighbours as her mother, Genieve, was selling fruit a few blocks away. When the ground began to convulse, the market partly collapsed. Genieve was hit by falling concrete and buried under rubble. Her death has left Lilian without anyone to care for her.

Continue reading...

‘They don’t come for us’: Haitians face agonising wait for help after quake

Posted on by

People in need of water, food and shelter are fending for themselves as aid response complicated by heavy rain, gangs and distrust of international agencies

On the morning a catastrophic earthquake struck southern Haiti, Jackson Mason, a barber, was picking up water and other shopping from Cavaillon’s bustling market.

“The earth below me started to shake – people were thrown into the air, others yelled, praying to Jesus to save them,” Mason, 35, says. “Everything flew in the air, even the wallets in people’s hands.”

Continue reading...