Logo: Michelle Karshan and staff and participants of Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ in Haiti

March 28, 2008 Alternative Chance/Michelle Karshan response to 2007 US State Dept Report issued March 11, 2008

Date: March 28, 2008
Contact: Michelle Karshan, Executive Director
Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ
U.S. Tel: 212-613-6033, E-mail: altchance@aol.com

Alternative Chance/Michelle Karshan response to remarks on criminal deportees in
2007 US State Dept. Report on Human Rights in Haiti released March 11, 2008

Despite a September 2006 Haitian court decision finding it illegal under Haitian law to detain criminal deportees upon arrival in Haiti, the Haitian government continues this life-threatening practice. Criminal deportees continue to be illegally detained in police station holding cells in horrific conditions where they are not provided any food, water, due process, medical or mental health care or medications or suicide watch. We continue to find detained criminal deportees in distress and in need of medical or mental health care and/or in need of medications for serious medical or psychiatric conditions.

The assertions, made in the 2007 US State Department Country Report on Human Rights in Haiti released on March 11, 2008, that criminal deportees arriving in Haiti are only detained "if the citizen had a criminal record in Haiti" and that the authorities used their "time in detention to assess whether the citizen planned to participate in criminal activities" are contrary to our personal observations and findings as well as Haitian law.

The Haitian government is given advance notice of the names and details of persons the US intends to deport and it is the Haitian government that provides the US with travel documents for each person thereby facilitating their eventual deportation. As such, the Haitian authorities have ample time in advance of deportation to check whether the arriving criminal deportee has a criminal record in Haiti. On March 28, 2008 Alternative Chance interviewed newly-arrived criminal deportees in detention in a police station holding cell and found that at least three of these persons had left Haiti as small children and had never visited Haiti. It is therefore obvious that those persons would not have "criminal records" in Haiti. Similarly, those persons born in the Bahamas and who have never visited Haiti would likewise not have criminal records in Haiti.

Our understanding, from conversations with Haitian authorities in charge of criminal deportee policy and oversight, and from our observations, is that the stated policy on detention of criminal deportees arriving in Haiti continues to be based on the type of convictions the individual has from the United States OR if the person has a minor conviction but has no "acceptable close family member” to claim them.

Detention for the purposes of determining if criminal deportees are plotting criminal activity in Haiti would beg the question as to what methods are being employed by Haiti’s police, and further preventive detention of criminal deportees is in direct violation of the September 2006 Haitian court decision stating that in the absence of charges relating to an actual crime in Haiti it is illegal to detain criminal deportees upon arrival.

Additionally, the International Office on Migration (IOM) program referred to in the State Department report does not assist or intervene on behalf of criminal deportees while they are detained by Haiti's police.

Further, we note our concern about the recently implemented Haitian government policy that interdicts arriving criminal deportees from obtaining a Haitian passport for a period of eight months. This is a violation of Haitian laws, the 1987 Haitian Constitution as well as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights on free movement.

For further information, please visit the Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ website at www.alternativechance.org or write us at altchance@aol.com

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