Chaos at Haiti Airport Following Deportation of US Migrants

Haitians have not been seen to this treatment, says analyst 1:50

(CNN) -

There was chaos at Haiti's main airport on Tuesday after migrants who had been deported from the United States were flown back home.

Thousands of Haitians have fled the country due to a combination of political instability following the assassination of the president in August and an earthquake in the same month that left more than 1,200 dead.

Democratic lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to stop deporting those who fled Haiti to the United States, but the White House remains committed to returning them.

Angry Haitians packed the runway at the Port-au-Prince airport after being dropped off on a deportation flight that they say was given little advance notice, a journalist at the scene told CNN.

• Authorities release some Haitians in the US despite claiming they would be expelled immediately

A group of men rushed back to a plane after disembarking, and one man tried to get back on board, witnesses told Reuters.

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"I am angry at the government. They told us in prison that the Haitian government had signed to send us back to Haiti. They are all bad people, these authorities," said Yranese Melidor, 45, who arrived on an earlier flight, Reuters reported. .

Harris criticizes Border Police for treating Haitians 0:44

"We didn't see any US presence except the aircraft. From what I observed, it basically looked like they were taken there and left," journalist Erlen Ofte Arntsen told CNN of the people he spoke to at the Port-au-Prince airport on Tuesday.

The migrants were angered by what they described as prison-like conditions in US detention centers where they were detained before being brought back, Arnsten said.

"They had to stay there for days in very closed places, one meal a day, unable to shower. And they also didn't realize that they were being sent back to Haiti before yesterday. They thought they might be going to another [place of] confinement, "Arntsen added.

The US Department of Homeland Security acknowledged the "runway disruptions" in Port-au-Prince and said Haitian officials resolved the situation.

"This Tuesday, September 21, some adult migrants caused two separate disruptions to the runway after disembarking in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haitian crowd control agents responded to both incidents and resolved the situations. ICE fully respects the rights of all parties. people to peacefully express their views, while continuing to carry out its immigration enforcement mission consistent with our priorities, federal law, and agency policy, "a DHS spokesperson told CNN.

With additional reports from Reuters.

Haitian immigrants