Americas must end racist treatment of Haitian asylum seekers

States across the Americas must put an immediate end to the anti-Black discrimination, including race-based torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, against Haitian people seeking safety and international protection, said Amnesty International on World Refugee Day

“Racist migration and asylum policies only exacerbate the harm already inflicted on people forced to endure and flee the humanitarian and human rights crises in Haiti States across the Americas must fulfill their international human rights obligations without discrimination, assess the protection needs of Haitians seeking refuge in fair and effective asylum procedures and refrain from returning them to Haiti,” said

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

“Instead of further endangering them, states must protect and uphold the dignity and rights of Haitian migrants and asylum seekers Regional solidarity and the reformation of migration policies with an anti-racist perspective are essential to addressing the grave dangers and injustices they face ”

The Americas region is experiencing one of the world’s most severe crises of people in need of international protection According to the UNHCR’s recent report, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022, six of the top ten source countries of asylum applications globally in 2022 were in Latin America and the Caribbean

Asylum seekers from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, Honduras, and Haiti have substantially increased from 2021 This transnational crisis is the result of multiple human rights and humanitarian crises across the region In Haiti, the deteriorating human rights situation has forced thousands of people to flee to save their lives and those of their loved ones Yet instead of receiving solidarity from other countries in the Americas, Haitians have suffered acts of racism, xenophobia, and systematic violence in their search for protection

“Racist migration and asylum policies only exacerbate the harm already inflicted on people forced to endure and flee the humanitarian and human rights crises in Haiti,” says Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International Amnesty International has documented and received information on cases of assaults, arbitrary detentions, torture and other illtreatment, mass deportations, and discriminatory practices that undermine Haitian asylum seekers’ human rights and their access to international protection in Peru, Chile, the Dominican Republic, the United States, Mexico, and other countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America

Haitians transiting through the Americas have also suffered a constant lack of access to basic services and legal protection These continues on B2 – Asylum seekers