Logo: Michelle Karshan and staff and participants of Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ in Haiti
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Image: Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ in Haiti, founded in 1996
Expert Witness re Haiti Deportation
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A Guide to Returning to the United States After Deportation: A Guide to Assess Your Eligibility
Overview of (petitioners) campaign to Stop the Deportations to Haiti
2-page briefing sheet to STOP THE DEPORTATIONS with calls to action
Haiti: IACHR - Haitian Removals SYNOPSIS and attachments
Deportation 101: A Community Resource on Anti-Deportation Education and Organizing
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CONTACT: Jen Nessel, CCR 212.614.6449, jnessel@ccrjustice.org, @theCCR; Shonna Carter, Riptide Communications, 212.260.5000; Elizabeth Amore, University of Miami (305) 284-6266, eamore@miami.edu
International Human Rights Commission Summons U.S. to Stop Deportations to Haiti Following First Deportee Death
Rights Groups Demand U.S. Comply, Calling Earthquake, Cholera and Violence a Death Sentence After Rare Inter-American Commission Action
February 4, 2011, Miami, FL and Washington, D.C. – Today, in response to an emergency petition filed on January 6, 2011 by six rights groups, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) took a rare step and urged the U.S. government to cease deportations to Haiti immediately for persons with serious illnesses or U.S. family ties. The action follows the first reported death of a person deported by the U.S. since removals resumed on January 20, 2011. In its decision, the IACHR expressed concern that “detention centers in Haiti are overcrowded, and the lack of drinking water and adequate sanitation or toilets could facilitate the transmission of cholera, tuberculosis, and other diseases.”
The deceased, Wildrick Guerrier, 34, exhibited cholera-like symptoms but is believed to have received no medical treatment while in a Haitian police station cell in the midst of a cholera epidemic. A second deported person was reportedly exhibiting cholera-like symptoms and released without medical attention.
Michelle Karshan, Executive Director of Alternative Chance, a re-entry program for criminal deportees in Haiti, responded: “The IACHR has rightly and courageously come through on the side of life, family and human rights. By resuming the suspension of deportations to Haiti for now, the U.S. can truly demonstrate its commitment to aiding Haiti through this difficult period towards real reconstruction."
“We implore the U.S. Government to follow the IACHR’s instructions,” said Sunita Patel, Center for Constitutional Rights Staff Attorney. “Stop the deportations to stop the deaths. The Obama administration should live up to its promise to abide by human rights obligations and protect the right to life of Haitians in the United States.”
The emergency petition for precautionary measures, submitted by the University of Miami School of Law Human Rights and Immigration Clinics, the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Alternative Chance and the Loyola Law Clinic and Center for Social Justice, argued that deporting people at this moment to Haiti, which is still reeling from the devastating January 2010 earthquake and burdened with a massive cholera epidemic, political unrest and street violence, will result in serious human rights violations, including deprivations of the rights to life, family and due process, and freedom from cruel or unusual punishment.
Deportations from the U.S. to Haiti had been stayed on humanitarian grounds since the January 12, 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti. Advocates and community members were shocked when, on December 9, 2010, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unexpectedly announced that it was lifting the ban on deportations to Haiti for individuals with criminal records and would resume deportations in January 2011, just one year after the earthquake. On January 20, 2011, the U.S. resumed deportations to Haiti, deporting an estimated 27 people of Haitian origin, several of whom had not set foot in Haiti since they were young children.
“Our petition warned that Haitians would be at imminent risk of death if deported to Haiti,” said Romy Lerner, FIAC Supervising Attorney. “Now our worst fears have been realized. Our government must stop all deportations to Haiti at this time.”
“The U.S. Government has blood on its hands,” said Rebecca Sharpless, Director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law. “While detained in Louisiana, Wildrick Guerrier expressed grave concerns that he had no family in Haiti, that he had not been to Haiti for a very long time, afraid of what would happen to him in Haiti and of the cholera outbreak. He was right to be terrified.”
While the IACHR’s decision on the emergency petition is limited to deportations of persons of Haitian origin who are seriously ill or who have family members in the U.S., advocates are hopeful that the Commission will extend the scope of its decision in the future.
“We will now pursue this as a case on the merits – alleging permanent harm – in light of the limited ruling of the Commission and in light of the long-term harm that has befallen these 27 individuals and their families and others in the pipeline,” said Caroline Bettinger-Lopez, Director of the Human Rights Clinic at University of Miami School of Law. “We have requested a hearing before the Commission during its March period of sessions. There, representatives from the U.S. government will need to look the Commissioners in the eye and explain their government’s past and future actions.”
To read the request for precautionary measures, visit http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/iachr-haitian-removals. To read the IACHR’s decision, visithttp://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2011/6-11eng.htm.
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The Precautionary Measures Petition filed at the IACHR of the OAS
Continue to suspend deportation to Haiti, by Michelle Karshan, Sun-Sentinel, January 19, 2011
January 6, 2011, Miami, FL and Washington, D.C. – Today six civil and human rights groups filed an emergency petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), to halt the roundups, detention, and imminent deportations of hundreds of Haitian nationals by the United States government. The petition, submitted by the University of Miami School of Law Human Rights and Immigration Clinics, the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Alternative Chance and the Loyola Law Clinic and Center for Social Justice, argues that deporting people at this moment to Haiti, which is still reeling from the devastating January 2010 earthquake and is burdened with a massive cholera epidemic, political unrest, and rampant street violence, will result in serious human rights violations, including deprivations of the rights to life, family, and due process, and freedom from cruel or unusual punishment. Click link below for full story and link to the actual petition file with the IACHR.
Being Deported to Post-Earthquake Haiti?
Life-Threatening, Illegal and Inhuman Detention Conditions will make Newly Deported the Latest Victims of Deadly Cholera Epidemic
Alternative Chance (Chans Altenativ) Statement on the Treatment & Conditions of Criminal Deportees Arriving in Haiti
December 15, 2010, Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Alternative Chance (Chans Altenativ), a self-help, peer counseling, advocacy program for criminal deportees in Haiti was founded in 1996. For nearly fifteen years, Alternative Chance has been intervening on behalf of Haitian criminal deportees from the United States once they arrive in Haiti and are imprisoned in nightmarish conditions in police station holding cells or prisons. Following the devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake, we welcomed the humanitarian gesture of the U.S. government when it announced it would suspend deportations to Haiti. We are shocked by this week’s pronouncements and actions by the U.S. government to resume these deportations at this juncture.
Earthquake conditions have not significantly changed since the U.S. saw fit to suspend deportations. In fact some conditions have worsened. Today there are more than 1.3 million persons still living in tent and tarp encampments with no transition or permanent housing on the horizon. Haiti was hit by a recent hurricane and flooding and its first cholera epidemic brought on by the arrival of a virulent South Asian strain. And, a week ago Haiti became embroiled in election chaos and violence in its streets. Today Haiti's Ministry of Health announced that since October 2010 there have been 2,405 known deaths from cholera and 109,196 persons have been sickened. Health organizations believe the numbers are at least double this. The World Health Organization predicts 650,000 persons will be sickened over the next year with a large percent to occur within the next few months.
Prior to the earthquake, Alternative Chance observed firsthand criminal deportees held in Haiti’s DCPJ police administrative building and in other police stations or prisons in and around the capital. Not charged with any crimes in Haiti, their detention is illegal under Haitian law and international standards. They are not provided any due process, a release date or an attorney. If they have no acceptable family member living in Haiti to apply for their release, the police enforce the Ministry of Interior policy and hold the criminal deportees indefinitely for months.
While in detention criminal deportees are not provided food, treated drinking water, medical or mental health care, and are not provided any necessary medications. Medical files transferred at the time of their deportation for those who have serious medical conditions are confiscated by the Ministry of Interior and never shared with any healthcare providers or hospitals.
Most of the police station holding cells are grossly overcrowded, are intended for short term detention and have no toilets or sinks. The detainees are forced to urinate in a communal bucket and defecate in paper bags. When there is room to lie down, criminal deportees must lay directly on insect, rat infested cement floors. Their cells usually have no lighting, are over 100 degrees, and the criminal deportees are locked in twenty four hours a day.
In pre-earthquake Haiti, criminal deportees have died while in police station detention or shortly after their release from these harsh conditions. In post-earthquake Haiti detention conditions are even more dire. Most prisons and police stations were damaged or destroyed leaving even less detention space per person.
Cholera, a deadly disease primarily caused by bacteria infected water or exposure to feces, can cause rapid dehydration, shock and death within the first few hours of its first symptom. Cholera is raging through prisons and detention facilities taking lives with it. Persons with cholera must be quickly rehydrated and in most cases placed on an IV drip. They must be attended to round the clock by medical personnel in either Cholera Treatment Centers or hospitals. In Haiti’s national prison, for example, it has been observed that many cholera victims died at night in the absence of medical care.
Humanitarian organizations in Haiti are already strained, have shortage of supplies to prevent and treat cholera and a shortage of medical personnel. Health organizations are currently in debate on treatment protocol as they are losing the battle to prevent cholera and to save lives.
We fear for the lives of those who would be deported to Haiti.
Michelle Karshan, Executive Director
Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ
70A Greenwich Avenue, #373
New York, New York 10011
Answering service: 212-613-6033
Internet FAX: 1-212-202-3992
In Haiti: 011509-3-871-0400
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Skype: Michelle.Karshan
Email: altchance@aol.com
http://www.AlternativeChance.org
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Attention: Michelle Karshan, Executive Director
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