The Jan. 25 decision by the Supreme Court that ends Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for 350,000 Haitians resident in the U.S. will have catastrophic consequences for that population if it is forced to return to a nation plagued by worsening gang violence, death, displacement and no chance of a future. The 6-3 decision also affected 6,000 Syrians and according to Associated Press, could lead to the Trump administration removing protection for 1.3 million people from 17 countries. The decision to end TPS will go into effect on July 27.
William O’Neill, the UN’s independent expert on human rights in Haiti, told the Miami Herald that the Supreme Court decision “will only exacerbate a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Haiti. No country in the world should be deporting anyone to Haiti, where safe, durable and dignified returns are simply not possible. Murders, kidnappings, and sexual assaults are rampant, and access to food, water, shelter, and medical care is severely limited. We are talking about human lives here.” So far this year, 2,300 people have been killed in Haiti due to gang violence; 1,100 have been injured.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres admitted during a recent visit to Port-au-Prince that the organization’s appeal for humanitarian assistance was only 19% funded so far this year. The majority of Haitians struggle daily just to find food, with some living at emergency or crisis levels of hunger. The national economy is projected to contract by 1.7% this year, according to the IMF. Food production has fallen by 4.8% over the past year.
