Haitian activists demand halt to deportations as gang violence and poverty soar

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haitian activists on Thursday demanded that other countries temporarily stop deportations to their country due to a surge in gang violence and deepening poverty.

Tens of thousands of people have been deported to Haiti in the past month, mostly from the Dominican Republic, whose president recently pledged to deport some 10,000 migrants a week.

The Caribbean country, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, has deported nearly 61,000 migrants to Haiti in the past month, according to the latest government figures.

In October, the U.S. deported 258 Haitians, while Turks & Caicos, Jamaica and the Bahamas deported a combined total of 231, according to Sam Guillaume, a spokesperson for Haiti’s Support Group for Returnees and Refugees.

He noted that many of those deported to Haiti remain homeless.

“A lot of them can’t make it back home because their neighborhood is controlled by gangs,” he said.

As a result, some deportees are temporarily living along Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic in hopes of crossing again.

Gangs now control 85% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and gunmen have been relentless in attacking once peaceful communities.

The deportees now join the more than 700,000 people left homeless by gang violence in recent years.

Among that group are more than 12,000 who fled neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince following attacks last month, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration.

Those held for deportation in the Dominican Republic are being forced into crowded jails with no water, no food and no beds, and when they defend their rights, they are sometimes tear-gassed, Guillaume said.

“People are being treated like criminals,” he said.

He added that some organizations helping Haitians in the Dominican Republic also are being attacked.

Julio Caraballo, spokesman for the Dominican Republic's migration office, denied accusations that the government is mistreating detained migrants.

“They are guaranteed breakfast, lunch and dinner, and there is even medical staff to verify their health condition,” he said.

Caraballo noted that mobile kitchens were set up outside detention centers to handle the demand.

He added that deportations are carried out with “respect for the physical integrity of detainees, with respect for human rights and with dignity.”

Meanwhile, Guillaume said Dominicans who are smuggling Haitians into their country are sometimes kidnapping them and demanding up to $300 for their release.

Katia Bonte, coordinator for Haiti’s Support Group for Returnees and Refugees, said the migrants they’re assisting urgently need food, water, medical aid, hygienic kits and other essential supplies.

The request to temporarily halt deportations comes as U.S. president-elect Donald Trump promises mass deportations once he’s sworn in, although many questions remain about how his administration would do so.

The Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, a New York-based group, said Thursday that refugees, migrants and others “will face escalating challenges” in the wake of the U.S. presidential election.

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Associated Press reporters Martín Adames Alcántara in the Dominican Republic and Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed.