Human Rights Watch condemns U.S. deportations of Haitian children

“It is unconscionable that any government would send people to Haiti while it experiences such a deterioration in security and a heightened risk to everyone’s life and physical integrity.” This is just one of many striking statements in a new report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week, in which the organization claims that the U.S is persisting in the deportation and expelling of hundreds of Latin American immigrants and refugees to their home countries, despite the insecure conditions there.

The report highlights that at least 580 Haitian children born in Brazil were expelled from the U.S. and sent back to Haiti – raising serious questions given their Brazilian birthplace. 

The document is based on figures collected by the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) and warns that the children who returned to Haiti had fled from “violence, the lack of economic opportunities or the consequences of the 2010 devastating earthquake.” 

The numbers are alarming: between September 2021 and February 2022 – the span of the new historical series compiled by the IOM – nearly 2,300 foreign-born children were deported by Washington. The deportees are not exclusively Haitian: the largest contingent was born in Chile (1,600), followed by 580 Brazilians. There were also...