US steps up deportation of Haitians ahead of election, raising Covid fears

The Trump administration justifies the expulsions under a public health law but critics say they risk spreading coronavirus in the Caribbean nation

Julian Borger in Washington
Thu 29 Oct 2020 10.00 GMT

US immigration authorities have radically stepped up deportation flights to Haiti in the weeks before the election, raising concerns over returned migrants’ safety on their return home and the risks of spreading coronavirus in the impoverished Caribbean state.

Twelve flights to Haiti have been recorded so far in October by the watchdog group Witness at the Border, marking a steep increase from previous months when there were on average between one and two flights every four weeks.

Most of the Haitian migrants have been summarily expelled under a 1944 public health law, which lawyers and refugee rights advocates say is being abused by the Trump administration to sidestep its legal obligations to give migrants the opportunity to apply for asylum and other internationally guaranteed rights.

Some of the Haitians deported in recent weeks have been asylum seekers who had been taken from detention centres in what administration critics say is a rush to expel Black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean ahead of the election. The Haitian flights coincide with the forced repatriation of scores of Cameroonian, Congolese and other African asylum – seekers, many of whom were flown out while they had legal cases pending.

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