NEW YORK (Dispatches) - The United Nations has expressed deep concern at mass deportations of Haitian migrants from the United States, warning they could go against international law.
The White House has faced a torrent of criticism after the U.S. started sending planeloads full of Haitian nationals back to their crisis-wracked country over the weekend, AFP reported.
The crisis intensified after pictures by AFP photographer Paul Ratje that spread quickly over social media appeared to show the U.S. Border Patrol horses coming close to trampling children as agents harass Haitian migrants and use whip-like lengths of cord to enforce their orders.
The head of the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR Filippo Grandi said he was “shocked by images of the deplorable conditions beneath the concrete highway overpass in Del Rio, Texas, where more than 14,000 Haitians had gathered after arduous journeys”.
He also lashed out at the U.S. government’s Title 42 policy, which was brought in by the previous administration of Donald Trump to stop most arrivals at the Southern border on the grounds that migrants could spread COVID-19.
“The summary, mass expulsions of individuals currently under way under the Title 42 authority, without screening for protection needs, is inconsistent with international norms and may constitute refoulement,” Grandi said in a statement.
“Refoulement” - returning asylum seekers to places where they risk persecution and threats to their life - is illegal under international law. Earlier in the day, the UN human rights and refugee agencies joined up to criticise the deportations.
“We are seriously concerned by the fact that it appears that there has not been any individual assessment in the (Haiti) cases,” Human Rights Office Spokesman Marta Hurtado told reporters in Geneva.
This, she said, indicated that “maybe some of these people have not received the protection that they needed”.