From Alyssa Sepinwall <sepinwal@xxxxxxxxx>
Just before Matthew hit, the San Diego Union-Tribune reporter filed the
report she had been planning on criticism of the deportation order. Online
you will find that article as she originally filed it, plus another she
filed on the hurricane yesterday:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-haiti-conditions-20160927-story.html
and
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-haiti-hurricane-20161005-story.html
and
Today the two articles appeared in the print paper combined as a cover
story (image of the physical paper at:
http://enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/desktop/sdut/default.aspx?edid=7e50870f-bddd-4ebc-97e4-38667e21baf7).
Since I can't copy from that text, here is the Oct. 3 story as it appears
online. I would like to note that of course I explained the failure of the
int'l community's reconstruction efforts and the factors that caused
skyrocketing urbanization in P-au-P in much more detail than in the story.
But I think that Kate Morrissey did a much better job than most
journalists in capturing complex ideas in a few short quotes.
I hope colleagues can continue the pressure on the State Department to
reconsider the Sept. 22 decree in light of the extra recovery that Haiti
now has, esp. in the South, after Matthew. It would be very inhumane to
break up families based on the date they were permitted to enter from
Tijuana, not to mention to send people home who will not be able to find
safe housing in their hometowns or in the capital. While I did not
personally meet any refugees from Les Cayes, I did meet people from
southern cities like Jacmel and Aquin whose families had to borrow to help
them reach the US through the thicket of smugglers and criminals along the
Central American route. If they are sent back without any chance to earn
money in the US and send money to their families, that will be disastrous
for Haiti and their communities.
***
Hurricane hits as Haitian deportations are already under scrutiny
By Kate Morrissey
Oct. 3, 2016
The recent U.S. decision that post-earthquake conditions have improved
enough in Haiti to resume deportations already seemed dubious to some
observers — and now a hurricane is bearing down on the island nation.
Those against the resumption of deportations raised concerns about Haiti’s
economy, an ongoing cholera outbreak introduced by United Nations
peacekeepers following the 2010 earthquake and a drought that has hurt the
country’s food supply over the last several years. The decision came after
thousands of Haitians who migrated from Brazil were allowed in at San
Diego’s border.
Now Haiti is threatened by yet another natural disaster — Hurricane
Matthew, which was listed as a category 4 hurricane on Monday. The
hurricane was expected to hit Monday night, and the country was placed on
“red alert” in anticipation. A local news organization reported concerns
for the safety of the thousands still living in tent camps following the
2010 earthquake.
According to 2016 data from the CIA, more than 62,000 Haitians are still
living in the camps.
In his official statement regarding deportations, Homeland Security
Secretary Jeh Johnson said that while the department stopped deporting
Haitians following the earthquake (except for those convicted of serious
crimes), “the situation in Haiti has improved sufficiently to permit the
U.S. government to remove Haitian nationals on a more regular basis.” He
did not cite specific conditions.
At a recent Congressional committee meeting, Rep. John Conyers,
D-Michigan, asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Sarah
Saldaña about the decision.
Saldaña said she heard from people in Central America that 40,000 Haitians
were on their way to the U.S.
“This is why the secretary made a decision based on what he perceives as,
on facts that he’s reviewed, that the conditions in Haiti are at least
improved enough for us to change the policy back to treating Haitians just
like everyone else, and that includes affording them the rights and
privileges that our system provides refugees and asylees,” she said.
Concerns
Alyssa Sepinwall, a historian at California State University San Marcos
who specializes in Haitian history, said a lot of the international aid
efforts have not actually helped the Haitian people. Several reports have
pointed out the low number of houses that have actually been built with
funding given to organizations such as the American Red Cross, she said.
“It’s very sad that they would be sent back as if everything was better
because there isn’t any place to put them,” Sepinwall said
Sepinwall also said previous U.S. aid efforts of rice shipments in the
1990s destroyed the local rice market and sent farmers searching for work
in the city’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where the earthquake struck. Former
President Bill Clinton acknowledged the aid was a mistake in 2010.
“We need to remember we contributed to this problem,” Sepinwall said. “We
have responsibility for part of this problem, the fact that people were
flooding into Port-au-Prince” before the earthquake.
The Department of State a warning for people traveling to Haiti in July of
this year, citing a lack of medical care infrastructure for emergency
services, high crime rates and potentially violent protests related to the
country’s political turmoil.
Stuart Leiderman, who has studied environmental refugees in Haiti for over
20 years, said information such as the travel warning contradict the
Department of Homeland Security’s statement that conditions were enough
improved to send people to Haiti.
The White House declined comment for this story, and the Department of
Homeland Security referred comment to the Department of State.
A state department official who declined to be identified sent The San
Diego Union-Tribune a list of metrics indicating improvement in Haiti,
although the years didn’t always match up with the recovery period in
question.
Economy
“Haiti has transitioned from a post-disaster era to a period of long-term
development and has achieved positive annual growth rates every year since
the 2010 earthquake,” the official said via email.
While the World Bank also says that Haiti “has moved from recovery to
longer term development,” economic growth has fallen from 2.8 percent in
fiscal year 2014 to 0.8 percent in 2016. The World Bank gives several
reasons for this slow-down: drought, lower investments and uncertain
political future.
The state department official said that the proportion of people living
under extreme poverty decreased from 31 percent to 24 percent in the past
10 years but did not give the change since the quake. According to the
World Bank, while 24 percent live under extreme poverty, 59 percent of
Haitians live under the poverty line.
“Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest
in the world,” the World Bank’s overview says.
Food insecurity
The state department official said the number of underweight children
under five years old was halved three years ahead of a goal set at the
millennium by the United Nations. The official did not cite other
statistics relating to food insecurity.
According to a report from a Haitian organization that monitors access to
food, the Coordination Nationale de la Sécurité Alimentaire, the number of
food-insecure people decreased by 11 percent from January 2015 to August
2016, following improvements in drought conditions. The total number of
food-insecure people was 3.2 million, almost a third of the population.
The organization’s report also says that the improvement is a fragile one
and is at risk for a number of reasons, including the possibility of a
hurricane or less than average rain this fall, price increases on imports
or fuel, or if Zika or cholera cause or renew epidemics during the rainy
season.
Health care
The state department official said infant and child mortality have
decreased by 44 percent since 1990. The official did not say what the
change has been since the 2010 quake.
According to a 2016 estimate from the CIA, the infant mortality rate is
48.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, which the CIA ranks as the 40th highest
in the world out of 224 countries for which data was available.
The state department official also said that maternal mortality has
reduced but did not say by how much or in what time period. The CIA’s most
recent estimate, from 2015, says the rate is 359 deaths per 100,000 live
births, which ranks 31st highest in the world, out of 184 countries.
The official also said that access to maternal health care improved.
“For example, the number of pregnant women participating in at least one
prenatal visit rose from 68 percent in 1990 to 90 percent in 2010,” the
official said.
The official did not say what the percentage has been in the years since
the earthquake. This year, medical staff went on strike for several
months, and Haitians were unable to access care.
According to Regine Zamor, a Haitian-American currently working in Haiti,
the strike had to do with low wages for staff and lack of medical supplies
to treat patients. She said her friend’s daughter is a medical resident.
“She explained to me, ‘Even if we opened the doors, if I don’t have
gloves, I can’t touch a patient,’” Zamor said by telephone.
Political instability
Zamor also said that while infrastructure like roads has improved since
she arrived to help in the aftermath of the earthquake, the country’s
political instability has contributed to the weakening economy.
She said the local currency, the gourde, has half the buying power against
the U.S. dollar than it had in 2010. Considering the imports needed for an
island nation, that imbalance is particularly acute.
Evidence of fraud in a 2015 election in Haiti led to an interim president
being selected by parliament in February, something else Zamor cited in
describing conditions in Haiti.
“We haven’t had an election, so there’s an interim government, which has
caused lots of things to be at a standstill,” Zamor said. “There are
rumors about how bad it may get. These things really affect whether people
can get a job and whether companies can expand.”
She compared the situation to Congress deadlocking on a budget and the
federal government ceasing to operate.
“Just imagine that happening in a place that is already struggling with
poverty, that is struggling with its environment and has just come off of
an unprecedented natural disaster,” she said.
She said she could see the appeal of the United States for those who had
to decide what to do after jobs ran out in Brazil, where many Haitians got
work visas after the earthquake.
“We’re not at the same level of the earthquake,” she said. “Things are not
that dramatic, but at the same time, the economy is a lot worse that it
was, and there’s an interim government. Again, uncertainty.
“Depending on what happens, it could actually be a life or death
situation,” she added.
The first round of elections take place Oct. 9, with the second round
expected in January.
________
Dr. Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall
Professor, History Department
California State University - San Marcos
San Marcos, CA 92096
760-750-8053 (o); 760-750-3430 (fax)
http://www.csusm.edu/history/facultydirectory/alyssasepinwall.html
https://csusm.academia.edu/alyssagoldsteinsepinwall/ ;(selected publications)
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415808682/ ;(Haitian History:
New Perspectives, now available from Routledge)
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