5846: Re: 5844: Violence against foreigners in Haiti and deportees (Saint-Vil) a reply to Saint-Vil

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Maxetluc@aol.com

Jafrikayiti claims that deportees are at the root of crime in Haiti.  
Unfortunately, the facts don't bear this out.  A quick scan through the 
archives on the websites of AP, the Boston Globe and the Miami erald shows 
story after story about the deportees.  Nearly all of them are in Haitian 
prisons.  They're taken there straight from the airport and there they stay.  
The government claims that they are there until programs to integrate them 
into the community can be set up.  The deportees and their famlies claim that 
the Minister of Justice is demanding large bribes for their release.  I 
suspect the latter is true, given Mr. Leblanc's reputation, but who knows?

One person has died in a Haitian jail after being deported, and another was 
retrieved from prison by INS after it was discovered he was wrongly deported. 
 Both incidents led to protests in front of INS offices in Miami.  Amnesty 
International has even taken a stand because these individuals have not 
broken laws in Haiti but are incarcerated nonetheless.  And let's keep in 
mind that we're talking about only a few hundred deportees.  (Remember that 
Haiti only resumed accepting deportees this past May and they are coming in 
at a rate of 50 a month.)  

So if there are relatively few deportees to begin with - and most of those 
are in Penetencier Nationale and Fort Nationale - why does Jafrikayiti insist 
that the crime wave is a result of the deportees?  Perhaps he has brought 
into the government's propaganda.  Since it is unwilling or unable to address 
the insecurity it chooses to blame the deportees - and by extension the U.S. 
- rather than address the problem

Dennis Williams
Port-au-Prince, Haiti