More than 50 people deported from the United States have arrived in Haiti, with some facing an unfamiliar country amid worsening gang violence and insecurity.
The deportees landed on Thursday in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien after authorities avoided Haiti’s main airport in Port-au-Prince, where the security situation remains highly volatile because of widespread gang activity.
Among those on the flight was Jay Dabelus, a professional boxer who was born in the Bahamas and said he had never lived in Haiti.
“I just arrived in Haiti. I don’t know much about Haiti. Actually, I don’t know anything about Haiti. I was born in the Bahamas, and I had been living in the U.S.A. for about 20-something years,” Dabelus said.
He explained that he left the Bahamas as a child and spent more than two decades living in the United States before being detained and deported.
Now in Haiti, Dabelus said he has no relatives, financial resources or support network to help him settle.
“Other than that, I’m in the land of Haiti. It is nice here, but I am trying to move on. I don’t have any resources, family members, or people to aid me, so I am trying to see how I can go from there,” he said.
Haiti’s National Office of Migration said the flight carried more than 50 deportees, including two minors.
The decision to route the flight to Cap-Haïtien rather than Port-au-Prince reflects the severe security challenges facing the capital, where armed gangs control large areas and have carried out kidnappings, killings and other attacks.
The deportations also come just days after a gang attack in Haiti left 47 people dead and more than 50 others kidnapped, underscoring the dangers confronting people arriving in the country.
The latest flight is the second deportation of Haitians from the United States since the termination of Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Haitians living in the country.
The first deportation flight, on August 20, transported more than 160 people to Haiti.
Several of those arriving on Thursday covered their faces after leaving the aircraft, reflecting concerns over their safety as they entered a country where many have limited or no personal connections.
For deportees such as Dabelus, the return presents an additional challenge: rebuilding their lives in a country they may barely know while navigating Haiti’s deepening humanitarian and security crisis.
