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Dozens of grateful U.S. citizens on Sunday arrived back in South Florida from a volatile Haiti — where worsening violence by armed groups continues to keep millions trapped and threatens to escalate an already worrying humanitarian crisis.
Landing at Miami International Airport, the travelers, many of them Haitian Americans, were among 47 passengers onboard a charter flight arranged by the State Department for U.S. citizens and their immediate family members. Many were vacationing or visiting family, they said, when violence broke out on Feb. 29.
Days later, gangs targeted the airports, main port and orchestrated a major prison break of the country’s two largest detention facilities, resulting in the escape of thousands of prisoners that include several notorious gang leaders.
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READ MORE: Armed gangs attack main prison in Haiti, releasing inmates
Citing the ongoing civil unrest, all U.S. carriers announced the cancellation of flights on March 4, even stranding those in Haiti’s second largest city, Cap-Haïtien, though there was no eruption of violence.
“It feels good to be home,” said Abson Louis, 46.
Louis, who lives in Orlando, said while Cap-Haïtien, located six hours north of Port-au-Prince, has been immune from the violent attacks engulfing Port-au-Prince and its surrounding cities, life remains difficult.
“It has been real stressful. It’s devastating over there,” he said. “I think a lot of people are waiting to have the same opportunity to be here, to get out of the chaos. We’re grateful the current administration is doing something about people getting left behind, American citizens, Haitian citizens, that are left behind. Hopefully, things will get better.”
The U.S. government arranged the charter flight to help U.S. citizens evacuate Haiti amid the escalating violence. Late Saturday, armed groups continued to target key government installations and on Saturday looted several homes in a well-to-do community in the capital not far from the U.S. embassy.
The violence is spurring a wave of panic and fear, leading to the continued cancellations of commercial flights into the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the direction of the police’s headquarters. The voluntary evacuations, which are not being done by the U.S. embassy, occurred out of Cap-Haïtien’s Hugo Chavez International Airport, which has also been closed to international flights until a few days ago.
‘No simple or easy solutions for Haiti’
Presumably thousands more Americans remain stranded in the country, unable to make it to the north, which requires crossing gang-controlled roads.
The armed gangs attack on critical infrastructure is triggering concerns regionally that the violence will spill over. Bahamas Prime Minister Phillip Davis on Saturday announced a tightened blockade around the southeastern Bahama, telling Bahamians that “there has been a collapse of law and order in many areas of the country, and a serious humanitarian crisis is unfolding.”
‘Unfortunately, there are no simple or easy solutions for Haiti, and the country’s disorder and instability pose a security challenge for the entire region,” he said. ‘In The Bahamas, we must patrol thousands of square miles of water in order to protect our nation’s borders.”
Davis said the country is deploying “significant” Royal Bahamas Defense Force assets to establish a southern Bahamas blockade operation, comprising of surface vessels, aircraft, and 120 highly trained RBDF personnel. Operations will focus on the northern coast of Haiti, the Old Bahama Channel, and the Windward Passage.
“As we expand our patrols in our southern waters, the United States and the United Kingdom are also working to position assets in the region. We are working with the US Coast Guard, with Turks and Caicos, and with the Cuban Border Patrol, to share critical intelligence and align our efforts,” he said. “Through these collaborative efforts, we have successfully intercepted a number of vessels originating from Haiti. The repatriation of individuals aboard those vessels will be conducted in a manner that prioritizes the safety of our officers and respects the human rights and dignity of the passengers.”
“We Bahamians are a compassionate people,” he added, “but we simply cannot absorb additional burdens or security risks at home.”
Major U.S. carriers and other international airlines suspended service to the Caribbean country on March 4, citing the ongoing civil unrest. Domestic service was also suspended in Haiti after armed gangs breached the perimeter of both the national and international airports.
READ MORE: Airlines suspend flights between Haiti and South Florida amid escalating violence
The plane used on Sunday had 166 seats but only 47 passengers were onboard said a flight attendant. All of the passengers were required to have a valid U.S. passport, according to the State Department, which in announcing the charter flight warned Americans that “travel to Cap-Haïtien is conducted at your own risk.”
Passengers said they didn’t know how much the flight would ultimately cost at the time. They were asked to sign a promissory note. However, with no idea how long before regular air service resumes, passengers said they jumped at the chance to return knowing that people in the capital would not be able to make the risky journey.
Avlot Quessa, who lives in Boston, traveled from the center of the country to make the flight. He said his February 27 trip to visit his mother in Hinche in the Central Plateau was only supposed to last a week.
“I ended up staying 20-plus days” he said, as he came out of the doors at the international arrivals.
While “it’s good to be back,” Quessa said he has mixed emotions about leaving.
“I also need to think about the people back home,” Quessa added. “Haiti is my homeland and it’s very stressful to see the homeland going through this act of violence, destruction… and they are our neighbors. They are only miles away from Miami. We cannot turn our eyes back on Haiti. Look at how much we invest in Ukraine and Israel. So no one is going to tell me that color doesn’t matter.”
“It’s just terrible,” he underscored. “The suffering, you can only imagine.”
Much like the other passengers, Quessa said he observed the violence from afar through news reports.
Marie Lucie St. Fleur, a 69-year-old who lives in West Palm Beach, said though she lives in the U.S., she feels most at home in Haiti. It pains her to see what her homeland is enduring.
“I don’t feel well at all. I would like to live in my country and I can’t,” she said, sitting in a wheelchair.
This story was originally published March 17, 2024 8:15 PM.
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