Haiti is a small Caribbean island, in the middle of south and north America. These islands are uniquely located and once were dominated by enslaved people, outnumbering even the British whites, working in plantations. For many years now, migrants from Haiti have been discriminated against in the migration policies of the United States of America, and have suffered violence, isolation, and intense poverty. They have been thrown out of states like Texas, detained near US borders, rejected asylums. The major reason for this is an image of them being unskilled, disease-ridden, and criminal-natured.
The United States has forever been a hotspot for migrants and people looking for opportunities abroad, across the world. The most skilled Information Technology expert, to the people working as manual laborers, represent almost 15% of the united states population. In 1980, they passed a refugee act, raised their annual allowance to 50,000, since their asylums were filled with people from the Caribbean islands.
Over the past few weeks, federal authorities are clearing up encampments that had housed Haitians near borders, sending them back on chartered flights, to spread messages about the inhumane journeys, preventing furthermore attempts to enter the country.
But why do Haitians move out in large numbers in the first place? What is their story?
Haiti being an island country is vulnerable to climatic instabilities, alongside having a corruptive and unstable political regime. They have long been subject to poverty, poor infrastructural developments, and almost no real living standards. Employment rates are nadir. Many spotted opportunities in bigger countries and continents. Since then, they are shifting from asylums and bases from one camp to the other. Even when they manage to reach their desired location, they are unaccepted and sent back. What separates their community from other migrants is a long pronouncement of radical stigmatization, being carriers of life-taking diseases like Tuberculosis and AIDS.
Title 42 is the expulsion tool that US Governments use to send out people believed to be coming from contagious countries. For a long time it is criticized for being discriminatory and a tool of suppression and the Haitian situation has been a prime example of it. It is excessively horrific and shocking.
Documentations of such stories are unbelievable. Many are on the run for years, many robbed midway, many lost their families along, while many were lashed by the authorities. Leaving one's home country out of helplessness is a very tough situation to be in, and when they leave, it is mostly to never come back. In past years, the country and its people have suffered natural disasters, political instabilities, assassinations of leaders, and a global pandemic now. To prefer living in an asylum over a pre-existing home somewhere is such a lamentable example of an afflictive situation. The problem is not new anyway and has long existed since the 1970s, where almost 200,000 Haitians came to the US in that period. Even today, the discrimination continues and except for the President, not much has changed. Many speculated Biden would overturn Trump's harsh immigrant policies, but still, nothing has happened. The continual anti-black policies, structural barriers, and mental stigma against these groups exist.
Most recently people were captured riding on horseback, attempting to contain migrants using whips and treating them as cattle and animals went viral. Discrimination is a curse, and when it reaches the state where the existence of a community is questioned, it becomes uncontrollable for the oppressed to finally charge. Unfortunately, a group has been tormented and disregarded for a long time because of its origins, color, and physicalities and it is high time now that it receives international recognition. Many organizations around the UN who work for refugee rights must be alarmed.
