PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Dozens of migrants upset about being deported to Haiti from the U.S. clashed with authorities while trying to rush back into a plane that landed Tuesday afternoon in Port-au-Prince.
A security guard closed the plane door just in time as some deportees began throwing shoes at the plane, yelling, “This is abuse!” and “How is this possible?!”
The group that included men and women had disembarked from the second of three flights that arrived on Tuesday, with some temporarily losing their belongings in the scuffle as police arrived. Among those trying to get back on the plane was Maxine Orélien, who blamed Haiti’s prime minister for the situation.
“What can we provide for our family?” he said. “We can’t do anything for our family here. There is nothing in this country.”
Orélien is among the hundreds of migrants whom the U.S. began deporting to Haiti starting Sunday, with several more flights scheduled in upcoming days. Many of them left their country after the devastating 2010 earthquake and now worry about how they will find jobs and housing and provide for their families in a country of more than 11 million people where about 60% earn less than $2 a day.
Haiti also is struggling to recover from the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti’s southern region in mid-August, killing more than 2,200 people and destroying or damaging tens of thousands of homes.
Those deported with young children are especially worried about the recent spike in violence in Port-au-Prince, with gangs controlling roughly one-third of the capital. Kidnappings have become increasingly common, with targets ranging from young schoolchildren to nuns to impoverished families.
Meanwhile, the future of thousands of migrants who remain along the Mexico-Texas border is in limbo. U.S. expulsion flights are expected to continue while Mexico was flying and busing some of the migrants away from the border. So far, more than 6,000 Haitians and other migrants had been removed from an encampment at Del Rio, Texas.
The rapid expulsions were made possible by a pandemic-related authority adopted by former U.S. President Donald Trump in March 2020 that allows for migrants to be immediately removed from the country without an opportunity to seek asylum. U.S. President Joe Biden exempted unaccompanied children from the order but let the rest stand.
Pierre-richard Luxama, The Associated Press
