Rights advocates warn mass deportations are worsening Haiti’s humanitarian crisis 

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Nearly 200,000 Haitians were forcibly returned to the country during the first eight months of 2026, adding pressure to a humanitarian system already struggling to assist people displaced by violence, hunger and economic instability, the Support Group for Repatriates and Refugees (GARR) reported this week. 

GARR said the Dominican Republic accounted for at least 194,465 of the forced deportations, while the United States returned 1,187 Haitians during the same period. The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and Jamaica accounted for another 1,426 returns.

The scale of the forced repatriations is particularly concerning because Haiti lacks adequate resources and services to receive and reintegrate large numbers of people, GARR said.

“Many Haitians expelled by the Dominican Republic arrive through border points where government services and humanitarian assistance are limited,” Stenley Orbruth Doriscar, GARR’s communications officer, told The Haitian Times. 

“It is a considerable number given the humanitarian situation we are facing in Haiti. Given this situation, we can no longer continue receiving people into the country,” he added.

The figures were also cited by Indrika Ratwatte, acting assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, during an Aug. 28 U.N. Security Council meeting on Haiti, following the Aug 23-24 gang massacre in Kenscoff. Ratwatte said nearly 200,000 people had been forcibly returned to Haiti so far this year. That figure is 20,000 higher than the number of deportations for the same period in 2025.

It is roughly equivalent to the total number of deportations recorded throughout 2024, the U.N official added.

Haiti’s humanitarian crisis

The mass repatriations come as Haiti faces severe humanitarian needs. The U.N. reported in July that 6.4 million people in Haiti needed humanitarian assistance, nearly 1.5 million had been displaced from their homes and more than 5.8 million faced acute hunger in 2026.

Humanitarian agencies are also struggling with funding shortfalls as needs continue to grow, the U.N. said.

For GARR, the most urgent challenge is the continued expulsion of Haitians from the Dominican Republic.

Doriscar said many returnees arrive at border points without access to adequate government facilities, shelter or reintegration assistance.

“We receive thousands of people every day, and GARR’s capacity to receive them is limited,” he said. “There is no reintegration program to enable people to remain in their communities of origin after their resettlement, and the assistance is insufficient compared with the number of people being deported.”

GARR has also criticized Dominican migration policies affecting Haitians, saying they violate migrants’ fundamental rights.

Amnesty International raised similar concerns in a March 2026 report, calling on governments to respect the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning people to places where they face serious risks of persecution or other grave harm.

U.S. deportations could increase

The United States has overwhelmingly returned fewer Haitians than the Dominican Republic so far this year, but GARR and other migrant-support organizations are particularly concerned about a potential increase in U.S. deportations following the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

More than 300,000 Haitians in the U.S. were affected by the end of TPS after the Supreme Court’s June ruling cleared the way for the administration to terminate the protections.

U.S. authorities have also told Haitian officials in July they planned to increase deportation flights, with as many as two flights per week carrying a combined 250 migrants.

The U.S. has already carried out three deportation flights to Haiti since August, taking a combined number of 319 people back— including one that brought 101 Haitians to Cap-Haïtien on Sept. 3.

GARR said in a Sept. 2 statement that the potential increase comes at a time when Haiti has limited capacity to receive and reintegrate returnees.

The Haitian government has not announced a comprehensive reintegration program specifically for former TPS beneficiaries, some of whom were born outside Haiti or have never lived in the country.

GARR is urging Haitian authorities to improve living conditions and develop measures to support returnees while calling on the U.S. administration to consider Haiti’s humanitarian and security conditions when carrying out deportations.

“The Haitian government should work to create better living conditions in the country so that Haitians can live well in Haiti without having to endure humiliation abroad,” GARR said.

The organization also condemned the death of 20-year-old Haitian immigrant Pierre Damas Bel on Aug. 31 in Springfield, Ohio, calling it a consequence of what it described as a harsh and degrading immigration policy that disregards the well-being of migrants who work hard every day in the United States.

“Damas’ family acknowledges that he was experiencing severe depression because he found the electronic ICE monitoring bracelet he was required to wear humiliating,” GARR said in a statement posted on X. “He was not allowed to hide the bracelet under his sock, which gives us an idea of how deeply this affected Damas’ mental health.”

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