US shifts to weekly deportation flights to Haiti
Washington has increased the frequency of deportations to Haiti; a recent flight from Louisiana brought 101 people to Cap‑Haïtien.
The United States has stepped up deportation flights to Haiti, sending more than 100 people on a recent flight that landed in Cap-Haïtien after departing from Louisiana.
Shift from monthly to weekly operations
Human Rights First, which monitors deportation flights, said the latest operation was the third consecutive deportation flight to Haiti, a development it described as marking a switch from monthly to weekly flights: "That was the third consecutive deportation flight to Haiti, marking the shift from monthly to weekly flights."
Two separate flights carried over 200 people at the end of August, and Haitian authorities report that the most recent flight delivered 101 deportees to Cap-Haïtien, according to statements from Haiti's foreign ministry coordinator, Nicolas Mardosh.
Among those returned on the recent flight was Renan Eduvil, who formerly led Haiti's Office for the Protection of Citizens and has faced corruption charges.
Authorities have been routing deportations to Cap-Haïtien because the main international airport in Port-au-Prince is considered too dangerous to use; armed gangs are estimated to control about 70 percent of the capital and parts of the central region.
Widespread gang violence has displaced nearly 1.5 million people across Haiti. The United Nations reports that more than 3,050 people were killed between January and June this year amid the unrest.
Photo: press material from the event
