US resumes deportation flights to Haiti despite continuing bloodshed

Source: The Guardian

US resumes deportation flights to Haiti despite continuing bloodshed

Critics condemn ‘reckless and cruel’ expulsions and say deportees likely to be targeted by armed gangs who control much of country

Luke Taylor in Bogotá and Gloria Oladipo in New York
Thu 18 Apr 2024 23.34 BST
Last modified on Fri 19 Apr 2024 00.09 BST

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 prime minister from office.

The flight, which landed in the port city of Cap-Haïtien early on Thursday, was described as “inhumane” by human rights activists who warned that deportees would likely be targeted by the criminal factions who control most of the country.

“This is reckless and cruel,” said Nicole Phillips, legal director of the refugee advocacy group the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “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.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/apr/18/us-deportation-flights-haiti