SAN DIEGO – With less than two weeks before president- elect Donald J Trump is sworn into office as the next president of the United States (US), a Haitian group in the US is urging the incumbent Joe Biden administration to halt the deportation of Haitians.

The Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) has strongly condemned the administration for what it described as the “blatant violation of international and domestic laws through the continued deportation of asylum seekers to the Republic of Haiti”.

HBA said that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been deporting Haitian nationals who are seeking asylum. “These actions undermine the United States’ long-standing commitment to human rights, due process, and international obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1980 Refugee Act,” said HBA’s Executive Director, Guerline Jozef.

She said the recent wave of deportations, including vulnerable Haitian families fleeing violence, persecution and immense violence, “demonstrates a disturbing disregard for legal protections guaranteed to asylum seekers under US and international law”. Jozef noted that in Haiti more than 700,000 Haitians have been displaced due to gang violence and more than 4,000 have been murdered.

He said that, for the past several years, the United States Department of State has designated the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country as a “level 4 — do not travel destination due to extreme violence”.

Furthermore, Jozef said Washington has evacuated most of its personnel including US citizens from the Caribbean country, adding that the violence has been so severe that on December 9, 2024, American Airlines announced that it had indefinitely suspended all flights to Haiti.

“Deporting individuals to countries in turmoil, such as Haiti, where political violence, insecurity and humanitarian crises prevail, contravenes the principle non-refoulement, which prohibits returning individuals to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened,” Jozef said. (Jamaicaobserver)

Photo: HBA executive director, Guerline Jozef. Photo (CMC)