Latest news with #Haitian
The Star
2 hours ago
- Politics
- The Star
UN: Violence against children in conflict zones at 'unprecedented levels'
From Gaza to the Democratic Republic of Congo, violence against children in conflict zones reached 'unprecedented levels' in 2024, a United Nations annual report said last month. 'In 2024, violence against children in armed conflict reached unprecedented levels, with a staggering 25% surge in the number of grave violations in comparison with 2023,' according to the report from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The report verified 41,370 grave violations against children in 2024 – including 36,221 committed in 2024 and 5,149 committed previously but confirmed in 2024 – the highest number since the monitoring tool was established nearly 30 years ago. The new high beats 2023, another record year, which itself represented a 21% increase over the preceding year. With more than 4,500 killed and 7,000 injured, children continue to bear 'the brunt of relentless hostilities and indiscriminate attacks,' the report said. There was also a marked increase in the number of child victims of multiple violations to 22,495. 'The cries of 22,495 innocent children who should be learning to read or play ball – but instead have been forced to learn how to survive gunfire and bombings – should keep all of us awake at night,' said Virginia Gamba, special representative of the UN secretary-general for children and armed conflict. 'This must serve as a wake-up call. We are at the point of no return.' In its annual report, the UN compiles violations of the rights of children, those aged under 18, in some 20 conflict zones around the world. In its appendix, a 'list of shame' calls out those responsible for these violations which include child killings and mutilations, recruitment to violence, kidnappings, denial of humanitarian aid and sexual violence. Conflict casualties The Palestinian territories occupy the top spot in the dismal rankings, with more than 8,500 serious violations, the vast majority attributed to Israeli forces, including more than 4,800 in the Gaza Strip. This figure includes confirmation of 1,259 Palestinian children killed in Gaza, and the UN notes it is currently verifying information on an additional 4,470 children killed in 2024 in the war-torn territory. The report also calls out Israel's military operations in Lebanon, where more than 500 children were killed or injured last year. Following the Palestinian territories, the countries where the UN recorded the most violence against children in 2024 are: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (more than 4,000 grave violations), Somalia (more than 2,500), Nigeria (nearly 2,500), and Haiti (more than 2,200). The list also includes Haitian gang coalition Viv Ansanm, blamed for a 490% increase in violations, including child recruitment, murders and gang rapes. Another addition to the list is Colombian drug cartel Clan del Golfo, which is accused of child recruitment. Colombia in general recorded a significant increase in cases of forced recruitment, with 450 children in 2024 compared to 262 the previous year. Remaining on the list are the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have been fighting in Sudan for more than two years. Also listed is the Russian army for its actions in Ukraine, where the report records a 105% increase in serious violations between 2023 and 2024. – AFP
The Standard
9 hours ago
- Business
- The Standard
Sauce maker Foshan Haitian sees modest debut in HK
Haitian markets its oyster sauce products on state media CCTV. Photo from Foshan Haitian Flavouring and Food.
New Straits Times
17 hours ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Panic grips Haitian migrants in US as Trump pushes deportations
NEW YORK: The 500,000-strong Haitian community in the US is in a state of panic as the Trump administration pushes to deport those who fled there after a devastating 2010 earthquake. "I came here seeking refuge, and now they want to kick me out," said Clarens, who obtained Temporary Protected Status (TPS) following the quake that levelled much of his Caribbean island home. "I believed in the American dream, and I thought I could bring the rest of my family here. I thought we would be able to thrive in the US." In Miami and New York, where the Haitian diaspora is largest, fear of being returned to the destitute, violent, largely lawless and gang-ridden island is widespread. "It's total panic, the whole community is suffering because even if your temporary status has not yet been revoked, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents are on the streets and can arrest anyone," said Clarens, which is not his real name. After cancelling an extension of the protective status granted to 520,000 of Clarens's countrymen to Feb 2026, Trump definitively cancelled it in June. While a New York court has blocked Trump's move, Haitian-American immigration lawyer Stephanie Delia warned the reprieve will likely be short-lived. "If it ends Feb 3 – which sadly we expect that it will – you're talking about people who for 15 years have relied on something and have built their life on it," she said. In Brooklyn's "Little Haiti" neighbourhood, many in the diaspora are too afraid to go to church, work, or even the doctor for fear of being arrested by ICE agents. "The number of TPS people – so mostly Haitians and people from Latin America – has dropped sharply at the clinic. From 300 to 30 a day. People are afraid," said the head of a clinic in the neighbourhood who requested anonymity. Guerline Jozef, director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said she was aware of many people afraid to go outdoors, including one woman in "complete distress." "She had to flee Haiti 20 years ago, and was able to get that protection in 2010. Now her fear is what is going to happen – primarily with her children," Jozef said. Haitian activist Pascale Solages warned that without legal status, "people will no longer be able to work, pay their rent, and will end up on the street." Faced with the choice of being arrested and removed, or "self-deporting," some migrants are fleeing to Canada. "We are receiving many inquiries and calls. We are seeing 10 to 15 people per day," said Marjorie VilleFranche, director of Maison d'Haiti, a support organisation in Montreal, home to a large Haitian community. Under an agreement on safe third countries, Haitians in the US can apply for asylum in Canada if they have family there. Others can cross the land border and request asylum within two weeks. Canada's Border Services Agency said more than 8,000 asylum seekers crossed at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle crossing between Quebec and New York State in the first six months – up from 4,613 in the same period in 2024. Most of those were Haitian. Clarens said he could not imagine travelling to Canada without his family and waiting years for an asylum ruling. The prospect of returning home is even more daunting. Haiti is plagued by gang violence, with more than 3,000 people killed in the first six months of 2025, the UN says. The gangs control most of the capital city, Port-au-Prince. Haiti is run by a weak, unelected transitional government and has not held an election of any kind since 2016. "Gangs control everything – they have informants monitoring those who enter and leave the country. In their minds, if you live in the US, you must have money," Clarens said. "We'd be kidnap targets. Sending us back there is like sending us to our deaths – to the slaughterhouse."
The Star
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
Iconic hotel in Haiti burned down by gangs
Haiti's once-illustrious Grand Hotel Oloffson, a beloved Gothic gingerbread home that inspired books, hosted parties until dawn and attracted visitors from Mick Jagger to Haitian presidents, was burned down by gangs recently. Hundreds of Haitians and foreigners mourned the news as it spread across social media, with the hotel manager confirming the fire on social media platform X. Even though gang violence had forced the hotel in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, to close in recent years, many had hoped it would reopen. 'It birthed so much culture and expression,' said Riva Precil, a Haitian-American singer who lived in the hotel from age five to 15. In a tearful phone interview, Precil recalled how she learned to swim, dance and sing at the Oloffson. Longtime hotel manager Richard Morse, who had been overseeing the property remotely from the United States since the hotel's closure in 2022, told The Associated Press that for several months, there were persistent rumours that the hotel had burned. 'So when I heard that it burned, I did what I usually do, which is call someone who has drones and have them go take a look,' he said. 'This time, when they called back, they said something like, 'take a seat'. I knew then that this wasn't like the other times.' The attack on the community where the hotel was located began on July 5, according to James Jean-Louis, who lives in the hills above the Oloffson. He said in a phone interview on July 6 that he observed the flames as he and other residents were chased out while police and gangs exchanged heavy gunfire. Journalists are currently unable to visit the site and verify the damage at the hotel because gangs control the area, which remains inaccessible. Patrick Durandis, director of the Institute for Safeguarding National Heritage, also confirmed the fire in a message to the AP. Among those lamenting the fire was Michael Deibert, author of Notes From The Last Testament: The Struggle For Haiti , and Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History . He landed in Miami, Florida on July 6 only to check his phone and see a flurry of messages from friends in Haiti. 'When you went to the Oloffson, you really felt you were being connected with Haiti's political and cultural history,' he said. 'You went to Haiti and were never the same. And the Oloffson really captured that.' The hotel attracted artists, intellectuals and politicians from Haiti and beyond, including the late US authors Jacqueline Onassis and Tennessee Williams. It also survived coups, dictatorships and the devastating 2010 earthquake. The Grand Hotel Oloffson was once Haiti's most beloved hotel. A whole lifetime Isabelle Morse, daughter of Richard Morse, said he loved having writers, photographers and other artists at the Oloffson. 'His sense of community was very important to him,' she said in a phone interview, describing the hotel as 'his whole life'. 'For him, it represented freedom, where people from all walks of life could come in and share that space,' she said. The elder Morse said he was reluctant to talk about what happened to the hotel given that in Haiti '... so many people are dying and being raped and losing everything that I don't want the focus to be on the hotel.' Morse spent nearly 30 years at the Oloffson. It's where he met his wife, had his children and started his band, RAM. 'There's no life without hope, so we have to consider bringing Haiti back and bringing the hotel back and bringing the art and the culture back,' he said. Isabelle said her parents had hoped to reopen the Oloffson. 'It's not only a business, it's our home. We were raised there,' she said. 'It was more about moving back home rather than reopening the business.' The Oloffson served as a presidential summer palace in the early 1900s and then became a US Marine Corps Hospital before a Swedish sea captain converted it into a hotel in the 1930s. It also served as inspiration for the fictional Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene's 1966 novel, The Comedians, set in Haiti under the brutal dictatorship of Francois Duvalier, best known as 'Papa Doc'. In real life, tourism dwindled under the Duvaliers, and the hotel became a respite for aid workers and foreign correspondents. Tourism boost In the late 1980s, Richard became the hotel's manager. RAM played Haitian roots music there on Thursday nights that became legendary, as were the Day Of The Dead celebrations known as Fet Gede that drew in Vodou practitioners. 'It was a vessel for so many people to gather and freely express themselves,' Precil recalled. 'RAM created that culture and that environment, made it a space that welcomed people from all types of denominations and sexual preferences.' The Oloffson was nestled in the upscale community of Pacot in the southeast corner of the country's capital. It was surrounded by lush gardens and often described as a mythical place, renowned for its intricate latticework, turrets and spires and creaking parquet floors that characterise Haiti's endangered gingerbread homes. A 1940s advertisement by Haiti's tourism department said that the hotel was situated 'in the coolest section of the town' and noted that English, French, German and Spanish were spoken there. The hotel closed in recent years as gangs began raiding and seizing control of once peaceful communities. 'A lot of Haiti's architectural heritage is going up in flames right now with so-called leaders standing by with their hands in their pockets,' Deibert said. 'The destruction of the Oloffson is symbolic of the destruction of Haiti's history and culture that we've been watching over the last several years.' – AP
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
New southern Haiti seaport, renovated airport spark Haitian trade mission to Miami
A new international port and an extended airport runway in Haiti's southern region are spawning hope of new trade and investment opportunities between South Florida and the Caribbean nation. That's the goal of a group of business leaders and investors from Haiti making the rounds in South Florida on Wednesday and Thursday to meet with key executives from the Port of Miami, Miami International Airport, the Beacon Council and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. The visit comes as South Florida-based IBC Airways attempts to enter the Haitian market with charter and cargo service into the coastal city of Les Cayes. Jeff Lozama, a South Florida resident originally from Haiti's southwest area, says he's hoping the visit will yield greater connections and business opportunities for the region, which in January inaugurated the new International Port of Saint Louis du Sud and then three months later opened an extended runway at Antoine Simon Airport in the coastal city of Les Cayes. Both projects were carried out by the country's transitional government which, unable to make a dent in the crippling gang crisis, decided to focus on trying to boost the local economy of the southern region by bringing the two major infrastructure projects to fruition after years of being shelved by previous governments. In the case of the airport, which is named after a Haitian president who led a rebellion in the early 1900s, its 4,200-foot runway was finally extended to 6,000 feet after years of failed promises to accommodate some international flights. Last month, IBC Airways conducted a test flight, fueling hope that the region will be open to tourists once more. But despite reportedly having permits to conduct cargo and charter passenger flights for the southern airport, IBC has run into problems, leading the head of Haiti's National Airport Authority to take to the radio on Wednesday to refute accusations that the company was being blocked from entering the Haitian market. 'We are always ready to talk, to negotiate with anyone who comes with a permit,' Yves Ducarmel François, the director general of the airport authority, said on Port-au-Prince's Magik 9. 'We don't give permits, and whoever has permits we will accommodate them. Our job is to give people space so they can work.' François said a French firm is currently conducting a study on behalf of the airport authority to evaluate how the Antoine Simon Airport can become a true international airport capable of receiving Airbus jets carrying as many as 300 passengers. Also, the airport authority is preparing to sign an agreement with the private sector to have the airport operated as a public-private partnership. The airport currently receives about 180 passengers a day, all of whom come in on domestic flights operated by local carrier Sunrise Airways. A major challenge at the Les Cayes airport, François said, is its lack of space to accommodate international travelers. Regulations don't allow for domestic and international passengers to fly out of the same space, François said. 'The infrastructure has to respond to the norms,' he said. François said airport authority staffers were sent to Les Cayes to see how they could accommodate IBC Airways, and he's currently 'awaiting IBC so we can put the infrastructure in place' to assure passengers' safety. In the meantime, Lozama is hoping lessons can be learned from Miami-Dade County. 'We are trying to have very good business transactions … and connect our business environment with that of Miami-Dade County,' said Lozama, a member of the International Trade Consortium, which organized the visit. Lozama says he's not just hoping for trade and investments but he is also looking for an exchange of ideas as Haitians meet their Miami counterparts in maritime, logistics and airport infrastructure. Among those from Haiti expected to be part of the trade mission: Jocelin Vilier, the head of the National Port Authority; Jean Nathan Letang, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Industry of Southern Haiti, and Cosy Joseph, an IT professional who worked in the U.S. and now heads Ideal Group S.A., which invests in agriculture and poultry farming. Joseph also sits on the board of the Chamber of Commerce of Women entrepreneurs and Professionals of Southern Haiti. Also joining the group will be experts in maritime and ports logistics, international consultancy and the head of the Collective of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the Grand South. In addition to making connections, the visit will also offer opportunities to learn from Miami-Dade's experience in managing large-scale infrastructure projects and exchange ideas on development strategies in Les Cayes. Gerard Philippeaux, the executive director of the Miami-Dade International Trade Consortium, said he's confident of the mission's success. 'The Miami-Dade business community has international experience and will embrace the opportunities presented to them,' said Philippeaux. 'I applaud the members of this Haitian delegation for their fortitude in showcasing all the business and investment possibilities in existence in the southern region of Haiti.' While the Les Cayes airport is a government initiative, the port is a private venture. The vision of Pierre Leger, an agronomist and leading investor before his death in February at age 77, and Ann Hauge, an American who has been involved in Haiti for decades, the International Port of Saint Louis du Sud was finally inaugurated in January when the transitional government signed the necessary agreements to make it operational. The $6.5 million port can accommodate vessels up to 490 feet in length. Since its inauguration the southern port has received several ships including a vessel delivering cement from Panama and another with rice from Cap-Haïtien in the north. Though questions remain about the government's ability to put in place the proper security measures to prevent a possible gang incursion, the port is viewed as a positive development in a region where people are desperate for access to the outside world. On the day of the inauguration, Hauge called for support for the port in encouraging 'the economy of the Greater South to be unblocked without gangs, without insecurity.' The Great South encompasses four regional departments in Haiti: the South/ Southwest, Southeast, Grande'Anse and Nippes. According to the United Nations International Organization for Migration, the four areas are home to more than 497,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes by gangs. Unlike Port-au-Prince, which has been almost completely overtaken by armed gangs, the southern regions of Haiti remain relatively calm. Still, the gang crisis in the capital has led to the south's isolation— and a higher cost of living for residents as major roads and tourism remain cut off by the gangs. In 2021, Les Cayes and other nearby cities were struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people and caused widespread destruction. Nearly four years later, the region of rolling green mountains and vast farmland still has not fully recovered.
