Haiti Still Under Siege

Two Catholic sisters were killed by gang gunmen in Mirebalais, central Haiti, on March 31 as armed gangs overran the city in a wave of violence that also freed more than 500 inmates from a local prison. The chaos and violence in Mirebalais underscore the country’s deepening security crisis and unchecked gang violence.

A new UN Human Rights report reveals mass killings, sexual violence, child recruitment, and attacks on schools and hospitals. “Human rights violations and abuses have reached a scale and intensity that I have never seen before in Haiti,” said William O’Neill, the UN High Commissioner’s Designated Expert on Haiti, during dialogue with the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Apr. 4. “The fear is palpable in people’s eyes and in their voices. The capital is almost entirely controlled and surrounded by gangs, making Port-au-Prince a large open-air prison.”

Despite the deployment of a UN-backed Multinational Security Support Mission last June, Haiti’s security crisis continues to escalate. The United States bears a significant responsibility for gang violence in Haiti due to the significant number of illegal weapons and ammunition smuggled into Haiti from U.S. states with less stringent gun control laws, according to a UN report in 2020.

For the more than 200,000 Haitians in the United States who were granted deportation protection and work permits by the Biden administration, the future is uncertain. A federal judge stopped the Trump administration on April 14 from rescinding their temporary protection status (TPS), along with TPS for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. For now, the judge’s ruling signals a major victory for paroled immigrants from the four countries, who sued the Trump administration in the hope of remaining in the United States for a two-year period.

Faith in action:

Watch the recording of a webinar on April 24 about the problem of U.S. illegal weapons going to Haiti, featuring William O’Neill, UN expert on human rights in Haiti. https://mogc.me/HaitiWebinar

Sign a petition to stop weapons trafficking to Haiti and keep TPS for Haitians. Deadline to sign is May 15. https://quixote.org/action#/18