A person enters the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, March 10, 2024.
Odelyn Joseph/AP
cover caption
toggle caption
Odelyn Joseph/AP
A person enters the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, March 10, 2024.
Odelyn Joseph/AP
MIAMI — A constitution flight carrying dozens of U.S. residents fleeing spiraling gang violence in Haiti landed Sunday in Miami, U.S. State Division officers mentioned.
Greater than 30 U.S. residents had been on the government-chartered flight, officers mentioned in an announcement. It arrived within the Miami Worldwide Airport after the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince earlier this month urged U.S. residents to depart “as quickly as attainable” as chaos grips Haiti.
Passenger Avlot Quessa, who lives in Boston, traveled from the middle of the nation to board the constitution flight after going to Haiti final month for was alleged to be a weeklong journey to go to his mom.
“It is simply horrible … The struggling, you’ll be able to solely think about,” Quessa instructed the Miami Herald of the close by Caribbean nation. “Haiti is my homeland and it’s extremely demanding to see the homeland going by means of this act of violence, destruction … and they’re our neighbors.”
Haiti’s most important airport in Port-au-Prince stays closed following gang assaults which have raged by means of Haiti in current weeks, pushing many individuals to the brink of famine. Authorities and help businesses this weekend reported looting of help provides because the state of affairs worsened.
The State Division introduced Saturday that it might supply restricted constitution flights for Americans from the much less chaotic northern metropolis of Cap-Haïtien.
Officers mentioned they might not present floor transportation to Cap-Haïtien and that U.S. residents ought to contemplate the constitution flights “provided that you suppose you’ll be able to attain Cap-Haïtien airport safely.”
“We encourage U.S. residents nonetheless in Haiti who search to depart to contact the Division of State utilizing the disaster consumption kind on our web site in the event that they haven’t already accomplished so,” the company mentioned.
Individuals taking the U.S. government-coordinated flights should signal a promissory invoice agreeing to reimburse the federal government.
One other passenger on Sunday’s flight, Marie Lucie St. Fleur, 69, of West Palm Seashore, mentioned she feels most at residence in Haiti and it pains her to see what her homeland is enduring.
“I do not really feel properly in any respect. I wish to reside in my nation and I can not,” she mentioned whereas sitting in a wheelchair.
The State Division mentioned authorities officers in Miami had been serving to the newly arrived evacuees to find out their subsequent steps.
The U.S. army final week flew in further forces to bolster security on the U.S. Embassy, which is in a neighborhood largely managed by gangs.