The American envoy to Haiti Daniel Foote has resigned, denouncing in a scathing letter the
“inhuman”
expulsions
by the United States of thousands of Haitian migrants to their country plagued by the terror of armed gangs.
Read also In Haiti, the distress of a people in the throes of yet another tragedy
"I will not join in the inhuman and counterproductive decision of the United States to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where our officials are confined in secure complexes due to the danger that represent the armed gangs controlling daily life
,
”
asserts Daniel Foote in his letter of resignation dated Wednesday and addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"Our political approach in Haiti remains deeply flawed and my recommendations have been ignored and rejected, when they have not been modified," he
denounces.
Asked at a press conference in New York, Antony Blinken on Thursday thanked the diplomat for his work, adding:
"This does not mean that we cannot have disagreements on the right approach"
.
“The level of desperation among the migrants can only strongly affect us all, so I really understand the passion that surrounds this case,”
he added. His spokesperson Ned Price had earlier rejected in a more direct way the accusations of Daniel Foote,
"simply false"
according to him. The envoy
"did not take the opportunity to voice"
his
"concerns about migrants during his tenure, and instead chose to resign"
, he lamented.
Another official accused him of trying to go beyond his remit in US policy in Haiti.
Read alsoHaiti, a country adrift, plagued by armed gangs linked to power
Tens of thousands of migrants, mostly Haitians, have been piling up for several weeks in the Mexican towns of Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala, and Ciudad Acuña, on the border with Texas, where they live in the heat and in unsanitary conditions.
Fleeing poverty and chaos, these migrants seek refuge in the United States, many of them after crossing a dozen countries like Panama and Colombia, where some 19,000 migrants, also mostly Haitians, are stranded in the frontier.
The United States had suspended deportations of Haitian irregular migrants after the earthquake that devastated the southern half of Haiti on August 14, but the regrouping in a few days of more than 15,000 migrants, under a bridge in Texas, has changed. gives it.
Since Sunday, the American migration services have already chartered 12 flights to return more than 1,400 people, including several hundred children, to the capital Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien, the country's second city.
Read alsoUnited States: a photo of migrants tracked down by border guards on horseback sparks outrage
Daniel Foote was appointed on July 22 with the objective of
"facilitating peace and stability"
and the holding of
"free and fair" elections
after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, killed in his private residence by an armed commando July 7. His resignation is a new blow for Joe Biden, after his parliamentary difficulties and Afghanistan: his policy of mass expulsions of Haitian migrants to their country in the midst of security chaos is thus criticized - with harsh words - by his own emissary . In a rare criticism, the Democratic leader of the Senate Chuck Schumer had also urged Tuesday Joe Biden to immediately end the expulsions described as
"despicable"
.
Antony Blinken has blamed this on the
“disinformation”
that leads Haitians to believe that they can arrive and stay in the country thanks to a status that in fact only concerns those who are already in the United States.
