The United Nations Security Council has approved the formation and deployment of a multinational police force to respond to the growing insecurity and widespread gang violence in Haiti. But the nation of Kenya, which is set to lead the force, has demanded that the deployment must be fully funded by the international community.
Of the fifteen members of the Security Council, thirteen—including the United States—voted in favor of creating the Kenyan-led force. While no deployment date has been set, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Alfred Mutua said in late September that forces could deploy to Haiti “in months.” Only Russia and China abstained from the vote, citing concerns with the history of international interventions on the island. Kenya’s cabinet and its parliament both approved the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to lead the peacekeeping force, which will be funded by the United States government.
In the two years since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7, 2021, gangs have taken control of wide swaths of the city of Port-au-Prince, carrying out a campaign of terror.
In the two years since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7, 2021, gangs have taken control of wide swaths of the city of Port-au-Prince, carrying out a campaign of terror. According to statistics from the United Nations, nearly 2,500 people were killed between January and mid-August of 2023, and more than 950 kidnappings occurred during the same period.
Haiti is currently facing one of its deepest political crises, yet any attempt to deploy an international mission to support Haiti’s embattled police force will be seen by international observers as backing and legitimizing Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who took power following the assassination of Mosie.
“This is bad politics,” Nicole Phillips, adjunct professor of law at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and expert on Haiti, tells The Progressive.
“[The international community] knows they're supporting a de facto illegitimate government that is implicated in the assassination of the former President,” she says. “It likely won't work. It's going to be less than 1,000 police officers and they will be there to assist the police force, which certainly does need assistance, but the current government is in charge of the police force.”
She adds, “It's sort of a fool's mission.”
Henry’s illegitimate administration has received support from the Biden Administration. However, Henry has yet to hold presidential elections and the terms of the country’s Senators have lapsed, leaving the country with a political vacuum. Faced with this crisis, Haitian-American leaders have called on U.S. President Joe Biden to “dump” Henry. The leaders from the National Haitian-American Elected Officials Network and Family Action Network Movement also spoke out against any new military intervention in Haiti.
“Any military intervention supporting Haiti’s corrupt, repressive, unelected regime will likely exacerbate its current political crisis to a catastrophic one,” they wrote in a letter to both Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “It will further entrench the regime, deepening Haiti’s political crisis while generating significant civilian casualties and migration pressure.”
“A majority of Haitians polled do not have faith in this government.”—Nicole Phillips
But as Haitians abroad are rejecting any intervention, polling suggests that Haitians in the country still support intervention due to the dire situation in which they are currently living. According to polling published in the Miami Herald, nearly 70 percent of Haitians responded in support of intervention to combat the government-supported gangs.
“A majority of Haitians polled do not have faith in this government,” Phillips says. “At the same time, they want an international military intervention. I think that shows the desperation of people on the ground.”
Gangs backed by the government have spread their influence to control an estimated 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, making it nearly impossible for children to attend school. Malnutrition has worsened as well, data shows.
CDC / Public domain
Map of influence of seismic and epidemic events in Haiti in 2010. The epidemic emerged from the MINUSTAH Base (located in Port au Prince, Haiti) which dumped its wastewater into the river as recognized by the United Nations in 2016.
But any new United Nations mission will face intense scrutiny due to the dark legacy of efforts in the early 2000s when previous United Nations peacekeeping deployments were plagued by controversy.
In 2004, the international community launched the multinational peacekeeping force called the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), following a coup d’état against the democratically elected leftist president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. During the nearly thirteen years of its existence, the peacekeeping force was widely condemned and embroiled in numerous accusations of human rights violations, including rape scandals, accusations of torture, carrying massacres in poor neighborhoods, severe racism against Haitians, and being responsible for the 2010 cholera outbreak that followed the devastating earthquake of the same year.
The Biden Administration has improved the ability of some Haitians to access refuge in the United States, especially by expanding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian migrants. But as Haiti faces a massive political collapse, Haitians continue to attempt to flee the country in the hopes of finding asylum abroad.
As the crisis deepens, the United States continues to deport Haitians back to the worsening situation. On September 28, the Biden Administration deported Haitian migrants back to their home country on the 287th U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chartered deportation flight of the year.
As the crisis deepens, the United States continues to deport Haitians back to the worsening situation.
Given the dangers in Haiti, human rights organizations issued a letter to the Biden Administration in September calling on the U.S. to suspend all deporations back to Haiti. Previously, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called on all governments to “suspend the forced return of Haitians to their country.”
But deportations are a cornerstone of the deterrence policy from the United States. Deportation was part of the efforts to dissuade Haitian migrants from reaching the United States since the 1980s. According to Phillips, the continuation of deportations seems illogical and cruel given the country’s continued crisis.
“[The deportations are] inexplicable and inhumane,” Phillips says. “It is unclear even why it is happening.”