PORT-AUPRINCE (AP) You are lucky, U.S. officials stated. You're going to visit your family.
Numbers were called by authorities to identify raffle tickets that had been issued to Haitians when they crossed the Texas border. Each number was called and another immigrant, also bedraggled, stood up.
Jhon Celestin recalled that everyone was happy. But I wasn't happy. It was a lie, I realized.
The prize was a return trip to the country they so long wanted to escape. Celestin, 38, arrived in Haiti on Wednesday's last flight to Port-au-Prince. He had left Haiti three years ago to find a better-paying job that would support his family.
This is one of approximately 2,000 migrants the U.S. has expelled from Haiti via 17 flights this week, with more to follow in the coming days. Many of these migrants cannot stay in Haiti. They plan to flee their country as soon as possible, just like Celestin.
Celestin had stopped the rain as he left the airport. He walked out onto the streets, his bag and his 2-year old daughter in hand.
Chloe, a Chilean born child, looked around at her surroundings and Celestin and his wife requested a borrower's phone to call a taxi. Although it would have been more costly, they did not want their toddler riding a motorcycle, a common mode of transport in a city with heavy traffic, smoldering garbage dumps and occasional burning barricades.
After a 35-minute ride they reached a house where they would share a basement with a cousin they had just been expelled from the U.S. The home is just a few blocks from the scene of the June shooting rampage that resulted in 15 deaths, including a journalist as well as a political activist. A police officer was among those arrested.
It is not what I expected, being here," said Celestins wife Delta de Len (26 years old), who was born in Dominican Republic to a Dominican father, and a Haitian mom. Although I'm here, I do hope to leave soon as the one thing that I want for my daughter is to see her grow up here.
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Haiti is home to more than 11 million people. About 60% of these people earn less than $2 per day. The country's economy relies on money from Haitians abroad, which amounts to $3.8 billion per year or 35% of its GDP.
The Haitian country to which migrants are returning is more dangerous, impoverished, and politically unstable than their home. It is still struggling to recover after the assassination on July 7, President Jovenel Moses, and from the August 7.2 earthquake in southern Haiti that killed more than 2,200 and damaged or destroyed tens of thousands more homes. After their homes were destroyed by rampant gang violence in recent months, thousands of people now live in squalid shelters.
Celestin and his spouse don't plan to stay long.
Celestin spent many hours on his first day back in Haiti sprawled out on the queen-sized bed that he shared with his daughter and wife. As he was planning his family's departure, he chatted with his sister in Chile and other friends on the phone. He stopped for a haircut, and to find out how to make a money transfer. His family had already sent him all of his documents to Miami so that he could be reunited with them.
After obtaining a visa, the new plan was to go back to Chile where he had built his homes as a contractor. The pandemic had wiped out jobs and frozen the economy. So the family decided to travel by foot, boat, and bus for approximately a month across the U.S.-Mexico border.
De Len said, "What hurt me most and what frustrated me most was the dead people that I saw, the migrants who died on the way."
De Len didn't sleep well her first night in Haiti due to the trauma of the trip, the conditions at border and the recent deportation flight for a sick child Chloe.
She said that I was crying because I didn't want to be here.
De Len plans to cross into Dominican Republic as soon as possible with her daughter to reunite her with her brother, sister, and father. Her husband will fly to Chile.
First, the family wanted to visit Jacmel, a coastal city in southern Haiti, to see more relatives. This was a risky journey because it required crossing gang-controlled territory. Buses are known to form convoys in order to be safe and pay gangs for passage. Doctors Without Borders closed its clinic in this area after 15 years of violence.
The breakfast that morning in Haiti was spaghetti and avocado. Normaly, Chloe drinks milk and fruits, but de Len stated that she was still waiting for a money transfer so she could buy basic food items. She was worried about her daughter's health and her future.
She said that I want a better future for her. It is a better, more comfortable life. This is the kind of life that a poor person could give to their children. It doesn't matter if that life must be in the United States. It doesn't matter if it must be in Chile. Let it live a better existence.
The couple decided to go to Jacmel on their second day in Haiti. Celestin and de Len hopped on a minibus and grabbed their bags.
Na pale! Celestins cousin called them in Creole Well Talk! The couple boarded the minibus and placed their little girl between them, as they set off on the treacherous road towards Jacmel.
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Coto reported from San Juan (Puerto Rico).
