Economy

There is no justice without a functioning judicial system and Haiti's is broken.  Prisons are sorely over-crowded in part due to 80% of inmates being held for years with no trial.  In addition, activists report a distrubing increase in illegal preventive detentions.  Judges are few, overwhelmed, and often threatened.  Haiti remains a fragile democracy and will remain so without justice and the rule of law.  If the judicial system improves, then we will know that Haiti is, at last, changing for better.  The full article by AP journalists Evens Sanon and Danica Coto is linked and follows below. 

Haitians have long worked in the Dominican Republic due to the lack of opportunities at home.  With the Dominican economy contracting due to the pandemic, many Haitian migrants are returning home.  The World Health Organisation's western hemisphere branch (Pan American Health Organisation) has established screening and quarantine centers at border crossings in the region but with 269 informal crossing points and only four formal crossing points ensuring the health needs of returning migrants is a daunting task - especially when they fear their own communities may stigmatise them.  The full article by New York Time journalist David Waldstein follows.