45-year-old Haitian Nicodeme Vyles was in shock when he found out in 2021 that he was being flown back to Haiti. “Before I knew it, we were being put on a plane.”
He tells The New York Times how he and his 9-year-old son traveled for three months from Panama to Maryland in the United States, where his girlfriend and their youngest child already lived. He had a good life as a handyman in Panama, but he wanted their family to be together again.
They were arrested while crossing between Mexico and the US. After four days in American detention, they were ushered onto a plane and flown back to Haiti. In his own words, he ‘didn’t even get the chance to tell his story to an immigration officer’.
Gang war
He sits there, defeated, in the garden of his sister, whom he had not seen for 18 years. Because that’s how long he hasn’t lived in Haiti. “I don’t know this country at all anymore.”
Vyles is one of an average of 850 Haitians that the US deports each year. Since chaos erupted in Haiti in 2020 due to an increasingly worse gang war, these deportations have caused a stir in the US.
“The situation has only become more catastrophic,” says Haiti expert Jan Voordouw. Violence has increased further in the last two months and the humanitarian crisis in the country has reached a new low. According to the United Nations (UN), 2,505 people fell victim to violence in the first three months of this year – 53 percent more than in the three months before.
Recently, gangs have been working together, which has exacerbated the terrorizing and kidnapping of civilians. In March, gangs rioted against deputy Prime Minister Ariel Henry, prompting him to resign. Since the president was assassinated in 2021, a power vacuum has emerged in which gangs have been able to grow enormously. Media and aid organizations speak of a ‘lawless’ country.
For a while it seemed that Haitians were no longer being forcibly returned due to the increased violence. But now the US has carried out the first deportation flight to Haiti since January. “The US is sending Haitians back to a country ruled by gangs,” says correspondent Erik Mouthaan.
‘Do not travel to Haiti’
Last month, the US removed embassy staff from Haiti. The highest risk level for travelers also still applies, with the US warning of ‘widespread kidnappings’. “Do not travel to Haiti,” the US embassy reports. “The current security situation in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous.”
This video shows how gangs try to take over power in Haiti:
So why is the Biden administration sending Haitians back at the same time? “Because she fears a huge influx of Haitian migrants now that the country is in chaos,” says Mouthaan. The number of refugees is indeed already increasing. In the first three months of 2024, an average of about 10,000 refugees per month from Haiti crossed the border into Mexico. That is 5 percent of the total.
Biden wants to send a signal with this, says Mouthaan. “He wants to say: don’t assume that you can stay here, we will just evict you.”
According to Mouthaan, it is no coincidence that Biden is opting for this tough approach now. “After all, it is an election year,” he says. “Trump claims that the massive influx of migrants in recent years is Biden’s fault and makes it his main campaign point. That is why Biden now wants to show that he can be tough on immigration.”
Jan Voordouw says the US is ‘not that bad yet’ compared to other countries. The Dominican Republic, Haiti’s only immediate neighbor, is likely to deport between 100,000 and 250,000 Haitians in 2023.
‘Unscrupulous’
Many Democratic politicians are angry. “The government has a moral responsibility to take a humane approach to helping Haitian immigrants fleeing these horrific conditions,” said Cori Bush, for example.
Human rights organizations also condemn the decision. “Unscrupulous,” said https://twitter.com/NathalyeCo/status/1780988668418601322. https://twitter.com/amnestyusa/status/1781365929323987252 used the same word, adding: “No one should be brought back to the violence and grave humanitarian, political and security crises unfolding in Haiti. Period.”
In March, more than 450 organizations already called on Biden to postpone deportations. The UN has also strongly criticized countries that deport Haitians. The US is far from the only country that does this. Despite the violence, a total of 13,000 Haitians were forcibly repatriated by other countries in March. “No country listens to the UN,” says Voordouw.
Irregular migration
Biden’s administration defends the deportation flight, saying it is especially dangerous in the capital Port-au-Prince. The Haitians are flown to an airport in the north, where there is less violence.
“That’s right,” says Voordouw. “But northern provinces receive huge numbers of refugees from the capital. And it is difficult to build something if you end up, with nothing, in a region where you do not come from and have no contacts.”
Moreover, people outside the country are also suffering from hunger: 5 million of the 11 million Haitians are malnourished.
The government also says that these are not ‘deportations’. “Because these people did not enter the country legally,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said. Although US law states that refugees can apply for asylum at the point of entry into the country, the US has increasingly limited the options for doing so since 2016.
According to the UN Organization for Migration (IOM), ‘the prospect of regular migration remains an insurmountable obstacle for most Haitians’. Illegality is therefore their only chance.
An unrecognizable country
Just like for 35-year-old Claire Bazile, who left Haiti in 2015. She was also forcibly sent back by the US in 2021, to a country she no longer recognized. Her family’s home had been destroyed in a major earthquake that year. Her mother and six siblings lived on the streets, she told the AP news agency.
She only had her 2-year-old child and a backpack with all their belongings. Like many others, she had to look for food and work. “I don’t know how I’m going to survive.”
Watch the video we made in 2021 about Haitians who were already sent back to their own country in 2021:
