Miami Herald

In recent days, 1,200 Haitians have been displaced by gang violence.  The Kenyan-led security force is under-staffed and under-equipped for pushing back gangs let alone holding cleared neighborhoods.  Even if they could, it is a temporary measure until there is an effective, accountable government in place.  So far the Transitional Presidential Council is remarkable only for the level of infighting.  Residents of contested neighborhoods lack food, water, and health care.  Reaching them is challenging for even the most professional humanitarian organisations.  Despite all this, other countries continue to send flights of deportees to Haiti which is reprehensible.  Read the fhe full article linked and below for more information. 

Even in more peaceful times, Haiti's patchwork system of governmental, charity, and private sector health care facilities were insufficient to meet the needs of the population.  Conflict with and between gangs has caused the situation to deteriorate further with over 30 private and public health care facilities having been vandalised or forced to close.  Those still open often lack staff, stocks, and security.  Haiti has only enough vaccines to last until the end of the month, health care facilities throughout the country struggle to have pharmaceuticals delivered through largely gang-controlled Port-au-Prince, and cholera is spreading on top of increasing food insecurity and malnutrition.  At this point, the situation is so difficult that re-establishing security would in and of itself be a health intervention.  The full article by Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald is linked and follows. 

The United Nations emphasizes that Haiti is in a dire situation and now is not the time to deport Haitians. The majority of deportations take place from the Dominican Republic with neither due process nor advance notice to the Haitian authorities responsible for receiving them. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports 154,333 Haitians were expelled by the Dominican Republic last year - about 87% of all deportations to Haiti in 2022.  It is true that insecurity in Haiti affect the Dominican Republic as well - but conducting mass deportations only makes a bad situation worse - politically, economically, and for human rights. The full article by Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald follows. 

Every aspect of Haitian society is being negatively affected by gangs, who in the absence of a functional government, operate with impunity.  Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald reported that a violent gang in Martissant stole the generator of the Sainte Croix Hospital in Léogâne and are holding it for ransom.  The hospital is forced to shut down unless the gang returns the generator or another is donated.  This is a tragedy upon an existing tragedy given Haiti's already very high infant and maternal mortality rates.  The full article follows. 

Haiti has yet to deliver a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine.  There are many reasons for this - a weak government, political instability, an already over-burdened health system, other pressing problems such as gang violence, and a false sense of confidence that the pandemic would affect Haiti only minimally.  According to the Miami Herald, USAID announced a $16.1 million commitment to assist Haiti in the battle against COVID-19, it was providing lab equipment, disease surveillance, hand-washing stations and 50 oxygen concentrators to be distributed to 16 hospitals.  It remains to be seen whether Haiti will be able to secure and use vaccines that the United States could provide.   The full article by Jacqueline Charles is linked and copied below. 

The Biden Administration will now allow Haitians who were in the United States as of May 21 ro apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).  This will protect Haiitians from being deported which is especially important given the ongoing pandemic, political instability, as well as kidnappings and other forms of violence that come with it.  This also gives Haitians, who are nothing if not hard working, the freedom to work legally so they can contribute to the communities where they live. More information on this welome development from the Miami Herald's Jacqueline Charles follows below. 

Weak governance and political instability continues to hinder progress in Haiti, but it is important to highlight what is working.  For example, Haiti has cut malaria cases in half from 2010 by working with a range of international and national partners including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, the World Health Organisation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the CDC Foundation, and the Carter Center.  This is welcome news, especially for pregnant women and children under five who are most vulnerable.  An update from the Haitian Minister of Health Marie Greta Roy Clement in the Miami Herald follows. 

Repected Haitian-American author Edwidge Dandicat writes in the Miami Herald op-ed below that the United States is endangering Haitians and communities in Haiti by deporting them regardless of their health status.  More than 100 Immigrants’ rights organizations, faith-based groups, academic institutions across the United States and Haiti, have sent a letter to the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, urging them to stop the deportations and find community-based alternatives to detention that will prevent the spread of COVID-19.  For members of the Haitian Diaspora and friends of Haiti, now is the time to contact your representatives and senators.  Haiti's political and health care systems are much too fragile right now to deal with a major epidemic.  The end result is that people will lose their lives.   

According to Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald, a historical landmark church inside Haiti’s UNESCO World Heritage site, was gutted by an early morning fire on April 13th which destroyed its wooden dome and much of the interior.  Haiti has few fire-fighters and it took the poorly equipped team in Cap Haitien over an hour to arrive, after which it was too late.  Preservationists and business leaders had previously called upon the government to protect historical sites, emphasizing that "only these monuments remain testimonies of our history of struggles, suffering and hope.”  It may be too late for Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church but it is not too late to better protect Haiti's many historical sites throughout the country.  The full article follows. 

Hurricane Dorian was the most catastrophic storm to affect the Bahamas to date.  Residents, which include many Haitians, continue to suffer.  As before the earthquake, some parts of civil society continue to stigmatise Haitians while others protect them. As the country preapres to rebuilds, undocumented Haitians worry about the possibility of forced deportation.  The Bahamian government has not issues an official statement but the Prime Minister has told hurricane-affected Haitians that they haven nothing to fear.  Haitians are part of the fabric of Bahamian society and will also need to be part of the rebuilding effort.   The full article by Jacquline Charles and Nicholas Nehamas of the Miami Herald is linked and below.