- Haitians beg for evacuation amid unprecedented crisis, violence in Haiti
- Haitian diaspora deeply connected, anxious over homeland’s dire situation
- Calls for immediate international support to restore order, aid Haiti
It is unlike anything Marjorie Villefranche has ever before encountered.
The director of Maison d’Haiti (Haiti House), a community centre in the St-Michel neighbourhood of Montreal, has been inundated with unsolicited messages from Haitians beseeching assistance to flee the country for the past six months.
“Please evacuate us; we are malnourished, terrified, and in the grasp of mobs,” Villefranche reminisced of the inundating messages. “That has never occurred before.”
However, the years-long crisis in Haiti attained a new pinnacle of political instability and violence this month.
Amid the uncertainty surrounding the ongoing political transition and the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry last week, influential armed factions have managed to retain control over the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
More than 360,000 individuals have been displaced as a result of the attacks, Port-au-Prince is paralysed, and the nation is confronted with a worsening starvation crisis.
The unrest has instilled in Haitians residing beyond the Caribbean nation apprehension and distress regarding the whereabouts of their cherished ones in their native country. Furthermore, it has generated increasing discontent regarding the inability to rescue family members from dangerous situations and has prompted calls to action.
Over fifty per cent of the Maison d’Haiti staff has immediate relations in Haiti.
“They are constantly connected to them via telephone because they cannot predict what will occur to them.” Some of the relatives are confined to their homes and are without electricity and water. They are unable to venture outside. “You put your life at risk to purchase food”.
Concurrently, the violence has resulted in the closure of the international airport in Port-au-Prince, and the land boundary of the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, has been substantially fortified as well.
“While it is technically impossible to extract them, this will appeal to all,” Villefranche explained. “They desire an escape from that agony.” “Everyone is wondering, Could I please bring my family here?”
The dissenting
Haitians have extensively migrated to various regions of the Americas and beyond for several decades.
While some departed in pursuit of improved educational prospects or employment prospects, others were compelled to leave as a result of natural calamities, political instability, and, to a greater extent, armed group-instigated violence.
Presently, substantial Haitian communities can be found in Ecuador, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and various other Central and South American nations, in addition to Canada, where the population of individuals of Haitian descent approaches 180,000.
However, the most substantial Haitian diaspora is in the United States, where, according to the 2022 US Census, over 1.1 million individuals identified as Haitian.
“Everyone is connected.” “Every Haitian immigrant is connected in some way to Haitians in Haiti,” said Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), an alliance of dozens of advocacy and community organisations based in the southeastern United States of America.
New York City has the second-largest Haitian population in the United States after Florida.
Like Villefranche in Canada, Petit stated that Haitians residing in Florida maintain deep connections with communities in Haiti. For the past few weeks, they have closely monitored the unfolding events in Port-au-Prince.
Petit said, “There is stress because you are seated here in Miami and feel powerless.” “You pray that you will not receive bad news or that you will not be the one to lose a family member.”
Escalating urgency
Petit stated that Haitians in the United States are becoming increasingly convinced that immediate action is required to halt the string of fatal attacks in the capital of Haiti.
Amid the violence, foreign governments and the administration of US President Joe Biden, who had supported Henry, the unelected prime minister of Haiti, since he assumed office in 2021, withdrew their backing.
They support a political procedure that aims to establish a transitional presidential council. This council, in turn, will select a provisional successor for Henry before the inauguration of elections in Haiti.
A proposal by the United Nations to support a multinational security mission to assist Haiti in its fight against the gangs has also been halted.
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Kenya is expected to lead the deployment, and its president stated last week that “a reconnaissance mission will be dispatched as soon as a viable administration is established” to ensure that “Kenyan security personnel are adequately prepared and informed to respond.”
The citizens of Port-au-Prince, according to Petit, cannot wait for this type of mission to appear. Conversely, she implored the international community, including the United States, to furnish the overburdened Haitian National Police with improved equipment and instructions to reinstate order.
She questioned, “What will remain of the nation while we await the arrival of a Kenyan police force?” “There will be nothing left to fight for after that.”
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