Prominent Haitian group Family Action Network Movement (FANM) has strongly denounced the continued violence and hardships facing Haitians saying it is also “gravely concerned by the deteriorating situation in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince
FANM said for a few days now, Haiti is under ‘total lock’, rendering the people hostage in their own land.
“The country has undergone a complete meltdown of security, skyrocketing prices of fuel and other basic necessities, and a general lockdown, in which banks have closed, markets are stop and go, reliable access to funds and basic necessities has disappeared, collective transport has come to a halt, and people have seen their livelihood and even mere survival disrupted,” FANM executive director Marleine Bastien told the Caribbean Media Corporation.
“Larger and larger numbers of people are demonstrating on the street, asking for change. Haiti is going through the worst crisis in recent history “she said, adding that she has been receiving calls from family members in the US and Haiti asking for help.
“Right now, the country is under total ‘lock, peyi-a lok’. There is no fuel, no food, and the cries of the Haitian people feel hollow amidst the deafening silence of the international community. Haiti needs help now.
“It needs security and safety from the on-going violence. Otherwise, the people will continue to risk their lives in rickety boats to make it to the land of the free (America).”
At the same time, FANM’s political director, Paul Namphy decries Joe Biden’s administration’s decision to continue deporting Haitians in the midst of the ongoing crisis.
“We reiterate our call to the Biden administration to provide a safe haven and due process for people fleeing violence and grave human rights abuses in Haiti now,” he said.
Prominent immigration lawyer in Miami, Ira Kurzban, said the United States has “a moral obligation to stop the violence in Haiti.
“We have continued to support an autocratic, anti-democratic government there to the detriment of the Haitian people and over the objection of every major human rights organization and members of Congress. Support democratic leadership and end the violence,” he added.
Last Friday, the United Nations said “violent civil unrest” in Haiti is hampering aid delivery to the country.
The UN said heavily armed violent gangs, which have taken over large swathes of the capital, kidnap local people for ransom regularly.
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