United States deports 560 Haitians in past two days

Port-au-Prince, Sep 20 (EFE).- Haiti received dozens of its migrant nationals deported from the United States on Monday, with around 560 arriving in the last two days, and thousands still remaining in a makeshift camp in Texas after crossing the border from Mexico.

Some cried, others cursed as they took seats in the reserved reception area at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the Haitian capital.

On Monday, 233 deported Haitians arrived, including 45 children and 45 women. Almost all the women were holding children.

The country expected three flights Monday from the US, but only two landed. Most of the deportees were between 20 and 30 years old.

At the airport they told about the dangers of their journeys.

“Several women were raped. Several men were killed,” said one deportee to another.

Of the 560 people deported between Sunday and Monday, at least 170 were children.

Many migrants denounced the conditions of their deportation. They expressed hostility towards the Haitian authorities, who they say received money to sign their deportation orders.

“We spent at least six days in prison without eating or drinking or washing. On the plane they chained us like thieves,” said one of them.

Coordinator of the National Migration Office, Jean Négot Bonheur, said the conditions of deportation did not depend on the Haitian government, but on the host country.

He said that three flights are expected for the next 15 to 20 days to receive everyone who is being held on the US side of the border with Mexico.

Some have legal documents from countries such as Chile and Brazil, others don’t. However, children with them were born elsewhere and therefore would have foreign nationality.

The deportees complained that the money given to them as an accompaniment fee was less than that which the Haitian government had allocated for that purpose.

Some of the migrants carried a suitcase. Others came only with their clothes.

Under the border bridge in Del Rio, Texas, they say they were mistreated by US border agents.

“They treated Haitians like thieves. Haitians are not thieves, but people who seek a better life. They did not treat people from other nations that way. It is racism,” said a woman in her thirties who said she lived in Cap Haitien. EFE

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