Crisis in Haiti | Canada prepares to evacuate its nationals

(Ottawa) After the United States and France, it is Canada’s turn to launch a repatriation operation in Haiti. A first evacuation of 18 Canadians was planned for Monday, but unfavorable weather conditions prevented flights between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

If everything goes as planned, travel between Haiti and the Dominican Republic will be carried out by helicopter “throughout the week”, announced the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, without wanting to go into detail, to avoid gangs thwart rescue efforts.

According to preliminary information, of the 30 Canadians who wanted to leave “immediately”, 18 more “vulnerable” – in need of medical assistance or with children – were expected to leave on Monday. The operation was, however, postponed due to inclement weather, Global Affairs Canada said.

Of the 3,039 Canadians registered on the government registry, fewer than a hundred people have requested assistance and meet the criteria for the first wave. Ottawa, however, intends to extend the operation to permanent residents and members of their families, said Minister Joly.

The reason it was decided to proceed in stages is that Santo Domingo has “strict admissibility requirements”, meaning that only Canadian citizens with a valid Canadian passport can enter Dominican territory, he said. she exposed.

Until recently, the Government of Canada had ruled out the idea of ​​evacuating its nationals, while ensuring that contingency plans had been developed in the event of a deterioration in the security situation in Haiti.

“Apocalypse”, again

While recognizing that the level of danger has indeed worsened, Minister Joly recalled that travel to Haiti had been discouraged for more than a year. “The people who are here are here with full knowledge of the facts,” recently noted André François Giroux, Canadian ambassador to Port-au-Prince.

Journalist in Haiti, Harold Isaac agrees with the Canadian diplomat. “We know what to expect. It’s true that we’re having a hard time, but this isn’t our first rodeo. We have seen the apocalypse more than once here,” says the Canadian native.

Same story with Carmen*, also a resident of the capital. ” I’m staying. I take responsibility for the decision,” says this trained nurse who has dual nationality. Because she has seen so many health care personnel leave for Canada and the United States that she feels a responsibility to stay.

“I have a lot of ties here; I have colleagues, friends, so it would be difficult to leave and carry my stress to Canada. Furthermore, do I have the strength, the energy, the courage to evacuate? And then if we are evacuated, could we then be told that we can no longer return,” she continues.

For those currently on Haitian territory, the Canadian government recommends “shelter in place, stock up on basic necessities (food, water and medicine)” and “limit their movements”.

These have been considerably hampered, if not reduced to nothing, since the international airport closed its doors almost three weeks ago, while the capital is in the grip of yet another surge of violence in the wake of the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

The total paralysis of the infrastructure is not unrelated to the decision of France and the United States to evacuate some of their nationals in recent days, before Canada decided to follow suit.

The French government transported some of its troops by military helicopter on Sunday to a national navy vessel which was then to transport them to Fort-de-France, in Martinique. The United States, for its part, evacuated more than 200 of its nationals.

Transition: already some hiccups

The governance transition period promises to be perilous in Haiti. We knew it, but we had a first demonstration of it over the weekend: the creation of the presidential transition council is encountering disagreements.

Disagreements marked, and seemed to persist on Monday, the development of the list of members of the committee, which must include seven voting members representing the main political forces in Haiti and the private sector, in addition to two non-voting members.

The only woman who had been chosen to be part of it, Haiti’s ambassador to UNESCO, Dominique Dupuy, announced that she was throwing in the towel, citing death threats against her family as well as misogynistic attacks. .

Corrigendum
A previous version of this online text indicated that 18 Canadians had been evacuated from Haiti on Monday, as Minister Mélanie Joly said at a press conference. Global Affairs Canada later corrected this by reporting that weather conditions prevented the evacuation.

* Fictitious name, at the request of the Quebecer of Haitian origin, for security reasons.

With Agence France-Presse