Haitian activists demand halt to deportations as gang violence and poverty soar

Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian activists are demanding that other countries temporarily stop deportations to their country given a surge in gang violence and deepening poverty. Tens of thousands of people have been deported to Haiti in the past month, including 61,000 from the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s Support Group for Returnees and Refugees said Thursday that many of those deported remain homeless because their neighborhood is infested with gangs that control 80% of Haiti’s capital. The deportees now join the more than 700,000 people left homeless by gang violence in recent years.