Haitian Migrants Refuse to Return Home

    The White House has recently faced a plethora of immigration struggles. On Monday, September 20, videos and images surfaced on social media depicting the United States Border Patrol’s brutal treatment of Haitian migrants. One of the migrants deported back to Haiti claimed they spent five days in Texas prison, given aluminum foils to sleep on. With the increasing influx of migrants, the Biden Administration has been pushing forward policies to relieve the overflow of migrants. Officials of Haiti’s national office of migration declared that teams are ready to receive and process migrants that are deported by force. However, the problem is that these asylum seekers do not accept living or returning to Haiti.

Photo: Paul Ratje via Getty Images

So, why are these people refusing to go back to their home country?

    On September 19, 2021, the first wave of forced migrants were deported from a makeshift camp in Del Rio, Texas to Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. An overflow in the immigration system posed challenges for the Biden Administration. Many of these refugees fled Haiti since the devastating earthquake in 2010, attempting to rebuild a life in South America. However, these Haitian migrants recently faced immense economic hardship and racial discrimination in countries like Chile and Brazil. Countless migrants traversed into the United States border in the hope of an easier crossing under the Biden administration. They refuse to return to a country they cannot recognize, nor do they have the optimism in building a life for a family. Unfortunately, these refugees have turned away forcibly due to the struggling crisis of the United States’ immigration system.

Photo: Jordan Vonderhaar via Getty Images

The issues of Haiti do not end there. Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, Haitians anticipate low expectations for the government. Many Haitians are accustomed to political turmoil and perceive the power struggle as the least of their concern. As Luckner Augustin, a handy-man living in Port-au-Prince, stated, "[Politicians] only care about stuffing their pockets with money." People of Haiti are exasperated over the infighting of political elites whose policies have minor significance on their lives. 

On August 14, 2021, another 7.2 magnitude earthquake concurrent with flash floods struck southwest Haiti, leaving more than 650,000 people displaced, and roughly 2,200 people dead. Although the United Nations and a myriad of international aid groups provided relief, the effort is all but microscopic. The country is facing daily gang violence, shortage of power, water, and fuel. The constant concern for most Haitians is not the government, but simply basic survival and security. As leaders of Haiti come and go with little change in public policy, with the addition of increasing disasters that make the country unstable, deported Haitians are agitated and lost.

Photo: Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

    These displaced Haitians are left with no options nor opportunities, many abandoning their life in South America in search of a better future. As we see Haiti and many developing countries facing turmoil, we cannot escape the thought that these are a microcosm of the events to come for the rest of the world very shortly. If we could somehow solve Haiti’s multifarious problems, we might discover a path through those more widespread challenges across the globe.



Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/19/world/americas/us-haitian-deportation.html

https://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/2021-haiti-earthquake-situation-report-1-september-1-2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/world/americas/haiti-president-politics.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/20/psaki-whipping-haitian-migrants-horrific-513106

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/world/americas/haiti-quake-aid.html