April, 8,2024
Geneva, Switzerland
Some 13,000 Haitian migrants were forcibly returned home by neighboring states in March despite the catastrophic humanitarian and security situation, the International Organization for Migration said on Thursday.
That’s 46% more than the previous month, notes the IOM in a statement, which adds that 3,000 of them received humanitarian assistance on their return and 1,200 are benefiting from psychosocial support.
“For most Haitians, the prospect of regular migration remains an insurmountable obstacle, leaving irregular migration as the only semblance of hope”, notes the organization.
Obtaining a passport alone can take “months or even more than a year”, which prevents the use of regular emigration channels, such as humanitarian visas, insists the IOM.
It notes a worrying trend, particularly among the population exhausted by repeated displacements: “cases of suicidal tendencies which were once a taboo subject, but are now increasingly frequently revealed”.
According to the IOM, Haiti has more than 360,000 internally displaced persons, “many of them repeatedly”.
The country had a total population of 11.6 million in 2022, according to UN figures.
The country has been ravaged for decades by poverty, natural disasters and political instability.
Since late February, powerful Haitian gangs have joined forces to attack police stations, prisons, the airport and the seaport, with the aim of ousting Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who finally resigned.
But the transitional commission has been slow to get up and running, which is holding up the arrival of the multinational force that is to assist the Haitian police – who are completely overwhelmed – in restoring order.
Humanitarian workers “are facing unprecedented security challenges, and must weigh the imperative of delivering aid against the harsh reality of the personal risk involved and the difficulties of travel”, explains Philippe Branchat, IOM’s head in Haiti.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator, released $12 million from an emergency fund this Thursday, April 04, 2024 to tackle the crisis.
“Incessant gang violence has displaced 50,000 people (out of Port-au-Prince in March editor’s note), plunged 5 million people into acute hunger and weakened an already fragile health system”, he notes on social network X.
In Geneva, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that, among other things, urges UN member states and all stakeholders “to continue to support the measures and efforts of the Government of Haiti to combat armed gang violence and the illicit sale, import and circulation of firearms, and to ensure respect for human rights in Haiti”.
Haitian leaders finally reached a political agreement yesterday, Monday April 08, to form a 22-month presidential transitional council to restore order to this Caribbean country plagued by gang violence.
Humaniterre with AFP
