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

May 21, 2007 Advisory on the Continued Detention of Criminal Deportees Arriving in Haiti

Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ
Self-help, Peer Counseling & Advocacy for Criminal Deportees in Haiti
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Email: altchance@aol.com, In Haiti: 011509 490-0782, In U.S.: 212-613-6033

ADVISORY ON THE CONTINUED & PROLONGED
DETENTION OF CRIMINAL DEPORTEES ARRIVING IN HAITI

May 21, 2007 Statement of Michelle Karshan, Executive Director of Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ, a self-help, peer counseling and advocacy program for Criminal Deportees in Haiti founded in 1996:

On May 4, 2007, together with a journalist and photographer from the Chicago Tribune*, I visited the police holding cells in the DCPJ police administrative building located near Haiti’s international airport. I spoke with eleven (11) Criminal Deportees who were being detained in a crowded holding cell since their arrival in Haiti in April 2007.

The Criminal Deportees were not provided any food, water or medical care despite three of them being seriously ill, and one – a sixty-five (65) year old man who lived in the United States for thirty-five (35) years suffering from hypertension, diabetes and swollen legs – stated he was hungry because he had no local family providing him with food. I also spoke with a Criminal Deportee suffering from Asthma who had experienced a frightening attack while detained there and was unable to obtain medical care or attention.

On May 6, 2007 I met with the Police Commissioner charged with oversight of Criminal Deportees who informed me that the Government of Haiti is evaluating the criminal records of arriving Deportees with the goal of releasing those with “minor” criminal convictions within ten days from the date of arrival in the event that a close family member comes forward to take responsibility.

However, Commissioner Honore informed me that those Criminal Deportees with “major criminal convictions,” including drug related crimes, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, assault with a deadly weapon, car theft/jacking, etc., or those with no close family member applying for their release, can be held for two months or more.

Based on numbers provided to me by Commissioner Honore and the International Office for Migration (IOM), I learned that on the last two dates (April and May 9, 2007) that Deportees were returned to Haiti by the United States government, roughly half or more were detained by Haiti’s police in police holding cells in the Port-au-Prince region (May 9, 2007: 50 returned to Haiti, 29 placed in detention). These numbers include the return of persons deported because of illegal entry, therefore more than half of the Criminal Deportees returned to Haiti by the United States government are placed in detention upon arrival in Haiti.

This statement should serve to clarify the current situation on the ground which is contrary to the April 17, 2007 letter being circulated by the State Department.**

For further information please contact Michelle Karshan at altchance@aol.com or in the U.S. at 212-613-6033.

* See http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070517haiti-story,1,6421477.story?coll=chi-news-hed)

** April 17, 2007 letter from Julieta Valls Noyes, Director of the Office of Multilateral and Global Affairs of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the United States Department of State referring to the treatment of arriving Criminal Deportees in Haiti which states that, "The embassy reported that the [Haitian] government gave no official reason for ceasing to detain deportees, but believed the practice was stopped due to lack of adequate prison space to house them."