U.S. Coast Guard repatriation of Haitians is at a record high this year compared to last year, latest statistics show.
The rise in returns by agents comes as the U.S. Customs and Enforcement Agency gears up to deport over 30,000 Haitians back to their homeland.
Since Jan. 1, 416 Haitian migrants have been returned to Haiti compared to over 200 last January. The latest returned for 2009 includes 61, including two children and an infant, who were returned recently to Cap Haitien, Haiti, after they were nabbed on an overloaded vessel in the waters northwest of Pointe Ouest, Ile de la Tortue, Haiti.
The number of Haitians returned between fiscal year October 2006 and September 2007 was put at 1,610 while the total for October 2007 through September 2008 was 1,440.
Between October 2008 and January 2009, the total was put at 646. For the same period last year, the number was put at 527.
The Barack Obama administration has yet to put a halt to the deportation of non-criminal migrants since coming to office. Haitians especially are facing a tough time since unlike their many Central American counterparts, they have not been allowed Temporary Protected Status despite the fact that the country battled back-to-back storms last summer.
Source: caribworldnews.com
