Skip to main content

United States deports Haitians despite coronavirus fears

PORT-AU-PRINCE (ITNTV) - The United States, the new epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic, deported 61 Haitian migrants on Tuesday despite fears of further spreading the deadly disease in the poorest country in the Americas.
FILE PHOTO: People wait to get water from a communal tap, during an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti April 2, 2020. Picture taken April 2, 2020. REUTERS/Jeanty Junior Augustin/File Photo
Some U.S. lawmakers, immigration advocates and Haitian human rights activists said it was irresponsible for the United States to continue deportations to Haiti, which is ill-equipped to contain any outbreak of disease due to inadequate sanitation infrastructure and healthcare services.
The densely populated country last month closed its borders after detecting its first two cases of the novel coronavirus, which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19, a tally that has since risen to 25 compared to more than 380,000 in the United States.
None of the deportees on Tuesday had any symptoms before boarding the flight, although they had not been tested for the virus and could be asymptomatic, Haiti’s foreign minister, Claude Joseph, told a virtual news conference.
Three migrants whom the United States deported on a March 26 flight to Guatemala and who arrived without virus symptoms have since been hospitalized after testing positive.
The Haitian deportees would be placed in quarantine on arrival, Joseph said. Critics question how effective this is, with multiple local media reports of those quarantined escaping.
ADVERTISEMENT
“If this leads to more cases, Haiti isn’t prepared to respond and our whole region remains at risk,” wrote Representative Andy Levin, a Democrat, on Twitter.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Haiti Foreign Ministry spokesman Israel Jacky Cantave told Reuters the ministry had negotiated with U.S. officials for the flight not to include any migrants with a criminal record. The country is trying to decongest its prisons that are particularly vulnerable to an outbreak of disease.
As such it received fewer deportees than originally proposed, Cantave said.
Guatemala has also asked the United States to limit its deportations to the country to 25 persons per plane because of concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.
Haiti’s government has closed schools and most industrial parks in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus. But with most Haitians working in the informal economy and living hand-to-mouth, it is struggling to get them to stay at home.
ADVERTISEMENT
Already last year, rights organizations were warning of a looming food crisis due to the economic impact of political unrest, racing inflation and a bad harvest.
Authorities have started distributing packages of food staples such as bread and rice to particularly vulnerable households. They are also distributing public handwashing stations and disinfecting public squares in some neighborhoods like the wealthy Petionville suburb of Port-au-Prince.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

European Union will close its borders to all non-essential travel to fight coronavirus

Madrid (ITNTV) The European Union will close its borders to all non-essential travel as it attempts to contain the  ongoing spread of the coronavirus  on the continent. "The less travel, the more we can contain the virus," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday following a video conference between G7 leaders. She appeared confident that the European Council would sign off on the restriction in a Tuesday vote. The bloc's member states imposed aggressive measures on Monday,  days after the  World Health Organization (WHO) said Europe was at the epicenter of the pandemic. French President Emmanuel Macron declared "war" on the virus during a national address on Monday, banning all social events across the country -- including family gatherings. Macron said those who have gathered in public places in recent days have not been respecting previous measures to limit the outbreak's spread in France, which as of Monday had 5,380 con...
Post a Comment
Read more

US uses encrypted app to connect with Iranians as coronavirus sweeps their country

Washington (ITNTV) The State Department is using social media to encourage Iranians to share information with the Trump administration -- both on an encrypted tip line and through an online survey -- about the  coronavirus pandemic  that is devastating the country. "This is Iran's Chernobyl," said one administration official of the outbreak, who described social media portals as a tool to bypass the Iranian regime and connect to the country's people. The US began encouraging Iranians to use the encrypted messaging app last year, when Iranian demonstrators took to the streets and US officials wanted to learn more about the regime's bloody crackdown. Now, with Covid-19 devastating Iran, the tip line has been reinvigorated, administration officials told CNN. This time, the goal is to collect information from Iranians, find ways to share that information when it is determined to be accurate and leverage the coronavirus in an effort to fortify a relationship ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Virus creates world's longest passenger flight

(ITNTV) —  The aviation industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with travelers across the world dealing with canceled flights and travel bans as they scramble to get home. But one unlikely aviation side effect is the creation of a new world aviation record. On March 14, French airline Air Tahiti Nui flew the longest ever scheduled passenger flight by distance -- transiting 9,765 miles across the world from Papeete, in Tahiti, French Polynesia, to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. This one off milestone was a direct consequence of the coronavirus-induced US travel restrictions. This route usually involves a scheduled stopover at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). But when an airplane stops over in the US, all passengers must alight the aircraft and proceed through US Customs and Border Protection before they're allowed to advance on with the next leg of their journey. Current restrictions rendered this part of the journey untenable, so instead, f...
Post a Comment
Read more