United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres challenged the recent assessment by the Trump administration about conditions in Haiti having improved enough to allow the revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and the return of its citizens in the U.S.
The report is part of Guterres' regular update on the country's situation before the UN Security Council and was obtained by the Miami Herald before its publication. It was written before the Department of Homeland Security announced it would terminate TPS for Haitians and claims that the country "continues to face considerable challenges, particularly arising from the deterioration of the security situation and the expanding foothold of the gangs."
"In sustaining their territorial expansion, armed gangs have seized strategic locations across the West, Central and Artibonite, spreading violence and committing serious human rights abuses against the population," the report adds, noting that all access routes to the capital, Port-au-Prince, are now under gang control.
Despite the assessment, a review by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services concluded that the situation in the Caribbean nation has improved enough to allow Haitians to "return home in safety."
The statement also said that permitting Haitian nationals to remain in the United States is "contrary" to the national interest. It encouraged Haitian nationals to use the U.S. Customs and Border Protection CBP One app to report their departures.
"This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protected Status is actually temporary," a DHS spokesperson said. "The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home."
As reported by the Miami Herald, it remains unclear how DHS reached the conclusion to end TPS for Haitian migrants, as the State Department currently warns Americans not to travel to Haiti "due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and limited health care."
The situation in Haiti remains highly volatile, according to the latest reports. The most recent update notes that forces fighting on behalf of the transitional government have reportedly killed hundreds of gang members with drones, inflicting tangible damage to the criminal organization for the first time.
According to a report by the National Human Rights Defense Network and picked up by InSight Crime, drone operations have killed at least 300 gang members and wounded 400 more.
The effort by the cornered government began months ago with the hiring of U.S. military contractor Erik Prince to help its forces. The Washington Post reported in April about the effort to deploy weaponized drones, detailing that they are commercial models modified with improvised explosives.
In the meantime, however, other UN reports have noted that violence against children in the country has increased by 500% over the past year, making it one of the most dangerous places in the world.
Concretely, the UN's Children in Armed Conflict report said the country is now as dangerous for children as Gaza, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Nigeria.
It claimed that the country's most powerful gang coalition, Viv Ansamn, is responsible for much of the increase, recounting widespread cases of killing and raping. The report went on to say it has verified over 2,260 grave violations against 1,373 children in Port-au-Prince and the Artibonite region. including sexual violence, killings and attacks on schools and hospitals.
A UN official told the Miami Herald that figures are just the verified incidents, but they are likely much higher. "The UN has very little presence in there. The harbor doesn't work. The airport doesn't work. The border is closed," the official said.
"We simply cannot get the full impact of what is happening in Haiti, but we know it's horrific enough that it is already providing horrendous figures with the little information that we're able to get now," the official added.
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