The following is an open letter to Haiti President Jovenel Moise written April 21 by Marleine Bastien, executive director the South Florida-based Family Action Network Movement (FANM). According to the Haiti Press Network, 129 Haitian nationals, including 49 minors, were scheduled to be deported to Haiti on April 23. The letter has been edited for length, style and content.
“Bastien” Dear President Jovenel Moise:
Family Action Network Movement (FANM) is requesting that Haiti stops receiving all deportations from the United States in order to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
This request is desperately urgent. Three of the 61 migrants the U.S. deported on April 7 to Haiti - on a flight that raised objections and concerns from several U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates - tested positive for the novel coronavirus while in quarantine in Haiti, according to Reuters (news agency).As of April 20, 2020, Haiti officially registered 57 cases of contamination, three deaths and zero patients declared cured, according to Haitian health authorities (Le Nouvelliste). These flights do not only put the deported individuals at risk, but they also threaten to spread the coronavirus in Haiti, a country as you know all too well is ill-equipped to deal with a pandemic which is wrecking havoc in the most powerful nation in the world: the U.S.
The deportation flights to Haiti have the capacity to spread COVID-19 not only to Haiti, but also globally. Haiti especially is dangerously unprepared to respond to a pandemic given its complete lack of public health infrastructure and inability to provide the most basic care to its citizens let alone respond to a dangerous virus!Haiti lacks ventilators, sufficient intensive care units, and the necessary equipment for medical workers to protect themselves as they treat patients with the virus. Additionally, it is still reeling and recovering from the devastation caused by the 2010 earthquake, Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the imported cholera epidemic, economic and political instability. Haiti’s water and sanitation systems are in shambles; many Haitians suffer from malnutrition.
NO CAPACITY
Haiti simply does not have the capacity to respond to a pandemic of this magnitude and the potential outbreak could wipe out the island nation.
According to the Miami Herald article “Caribbean nations can’t get U.S. masks, ventilators for COVID-19 under Trump policy”, a spokesperson from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the agency is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prevent distributors from diverting personal protective equipment, or PPE, such as face masks and gloves, overseas. Ventilators also are on the prohibited list. Haiti thus may not even be able to procure the needed supplies even if it wanted to.
In light of the serious loss of lives caused by COVID-19, which already claimed more than 170,000 lives as of April 20, we write to ask you that you not only ask President Trump to put a moratorium on all deportations, but for you to also stop accepting deportees. Immigration advocates in the U.S. and around the world are ready to stand with you in this inhumane fight. We are asking you to act now to prevent further spread of the disease!
As we unite and mobilize to support Haiti in this time of grave crisis, we, the undersigned organizations remain confident that you will heed our calls to stop accepting all deportations from the U.S. and other nations to Haiti, putting our vulnerable nation and others at a greater risk.
Sincerely,
Marleine Bastien
