03 Haitians including 14 children were repatriated to Cap-Haitian this Thursday, June 23, 2022. Most of them are from the North-West, and were intercepted the day before off the coast of Cuba by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The U.S. authorities have just repatriated Thursday 73 men, 16 women and 14 children who were trying to reach Miami. They embarked from La Pointe des Palmistes, a locality of Port-de-Paix, in the North-West department on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, before being intercepted and brought back to Haiti the following day.
Decidedly, nothing can prevent Haitians from risking their lives at sea. It is well known that clandestine trips are most of the time ended by shipwreck or interception by the coast guards of the countries concerned.
With this umpteenth repatriation, the National Office of Migration (ONM) in Cap-Haitian has just received 103 Haitians, including 14 children. The inspector at the Institute of Social Welfare and Research, Bellegarde Charles, present at the reception of these compatriots, discourages parents from risking their lives and those of their children at sea.
The children found among the repatriated people are between 2 and 16 years old. This is a significant number compared to the last repatriation of Haitians received by the ONM/Nord last month.
Several of these compatriots rescued from the sea by the U.S. Coast Guard, before arriving in Miami, have stated that they would rather risk their lives than stay in Haiti and perish. The goal is to seek betterment elsewhere at all costs. Obviously, the situation is difficult for the travelers and for those who are supposed to take care of them. To hear the agent of protection of minors in the North.
Jonas (not his real name), one of the returnees interviewed by ZoomhaitiNews correspondent in the region, Love Markendy Paul, said he was aware of the risks involved and the rather perilous circumstances of the clandestine journey. Aware of the magnitude of the danger, he said he would rather take this risk than stay in Haiti on his own. The socio-economic, political and diplomatic conditions help.
Why should Haitians choose to risk their lives and those of their children in makeshift boats, at the risk of being apprehended, and in the worst case, drown, asks Bellegarde Charles. At the local level, the conditions are not met, and the means are not sufficiently available to the regional authorities to deal with it, he complains.
The inspector at IBESR in the North also denounces the irresponsibility of the State because the departmental authorities do not have the means to prevent Haitians from risking their lives at sea, again and again. More means are needed to prevent this, recommends the public official.
Many of the repatriated compatriots risk their lives, hoping to reach their destination. If they fail, they are arrested and taken to their country of origin. In the case of Haiti, some of them bet on the costs of the National Office for Migration. In other words, risking their lives at sea to receive a little money afterwards becomes a way of life, regrets this government official. What’s worse, even if it means endangering the lives of children aged two and over. Imagine a two-year-old child on a makeshift boat about to be shipwrecked!
