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The US immigration authorities. USA Deportations to Haiti will continue on Monday, with a flight scheduled to have at least 100 people on board, including five people who recently tested positive for the new coronavirus, according to a US-based rights group. USA
Among those facing deportation is Stephane Etienne, who tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time on April 17 at the Pine Prairie Immigration and Customs Enforcement Center (ICE) in Louisiana.
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He told Al Jazeera in a video call from the detention center that he tested positive again on April 28 and has not been tested since then.
Monday’s deportation flight also includes at least four other people who tested positive since April 16 at the Pine Prairie Detention Center, according to the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), a rights organization Boston-based human who has obtained information on this. list.
“I don’t know how they can do this,” said Etienne, who maintains that he has never set foot in Haiti and was born in the United States.
Deporting people known to be infected with the virus violates US public health guidelines. USA And international designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Dr. Jacques Boncy, director of the national laboratory of the Haitian Ministry of Public Health, said deporting those with COVID-19 would also put other passengers on the flight, as well as the crew and the Haitian population, at risk.
“Everyone knows the risks,” said Dr. Laure Adrien, executive director of the Haitian Ministry of Public Health.
“We are facing a pandemic,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that “every positive case is too much; any positive case is a risk.”
Although Haiti has reported a relatively low number of cases, fewer than 200, experts fear the actual number is much higher, as Haitians working in the neighboring Dominican Republic, which has more than 10,000 cases, return home in the middle closing measures.
Experts warn that Haiti’s health system is not equipped to handle an influx of cases.
People wait to get water from a community tap, during an outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti [Jeanty Junior Augustin/Reuters]
Despite the high risks of COVID-19 infection, ICE generally does not screen the virus for all detainees prior to deportation. Etienne doubts that he would have been evaluated had he not insisted on a coronavirus test. Since he first tested positive for the coronavirus, he has been confined in Pine Prairie indoors with at least 11 other people who recently tested positive for the virus, he said.
ICE did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. The agency said in late April that it would begin evaluating some migrants before deportation, but did not elaborate on the timing, US media reported.
At least 788 detainees, including 26 at the Pine Prairie Detention Center, have tested positive for COVID-19, according to ICE, with 1,593 tests performed. There are currently more than 29,000 people detained at ICE facilities in the United States.
‘Reckless on a whole new level’
IJDH immigration policy coordinator Steve Forester said that while it is unwise that the US USA Sports people in the midst of a pandemic without at least testing them to make sure they are not carrying the virus, the deportation flight scheduled for Monday “is reckless to a new level.”
“For the United States, knowingly sending positive COVIDs to Haiti is a tremendous disrespect for Haiti and Haitians,” he told Al Jazeera, adding, however, that “this is in line with [US President Donald] Trump’s statements and previous actions. “
How many other people are deporting those who have tested positive?
Steve Forester, IJDH
The United States has been accused of deporting the virus, and more than 100 deported Guatemalans tested positive, according to Guatemalan officials. At least three people deported by the United States on April 7 tested positive for the coronavirus upon returning to Haiti, according to the Haitian Ministry of Public Health. The United States has deported people to at least nine other Latin American and Caribbean countries since February, according to the Center for Economic and Political Research, despite US and international guidelines that emphasize the risks that international travel poses to the spread of the coronavirus.
“How many other people are deporting those who tested positive?” Forester asked.
