标签： Haiti

On the sidelines of the 5th United Nations Police Chiefs’ Summit (UNCOPS 2026) held in New York, Haiti’s top security leadership has delivered a urgent call for coordinated multilateral action to confront the cascading security crisis destabilizing the Caribbean nation and the broader region.

Leading the Haitian delegation to the September 2026 summit was Public Security Minister Patrick Pélissier, with senior security figures joining the delegation including Acting Commander-in-Chief of the Haitian National Police (PNH) Vladimir Paraison, Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd’H) Commander-in-Chief Lieutenant General Derby Guerrier, PNH Chief Inspector General Frédéric Leconte, and Presidential Security Coordinator Inspector General Jacques Joël Orival.

In his keynote address to the assembly, Paraison spoke on behalf of Haiti, framing the country’s ongoing security fight as a sovereign mission to reclaim full control of its national security landscape. He opened by outlining the foundational threat driving Haiti’s instability: transnational regional drug trafficking that has eroded governance and fractured stability across the island, with Haiti bearing the brunt of the crisis.

To counter this threat, Paraison argued for a fundamental shift in Haiti’s security strategy, emphasizing that outdated, isolated operational models are no longer sufficient. He called for investment in cutting-edge technological infrastructure for border management, including purpose-built maritime vessels equipped with advanced real-time intelligence capabilities that allow for rapid information sharing and coordinated interception operations between frontline units and command decision-makers.

Paraison stressed that the era of unilateral police action has passed, pointing to the UNCOPS platform as a critical framework for regional security collaboration. This multilateral space, he noted, enables strategic pooling of critical human, logistical, and technological resources across regional police forces — a synergy that is non-negotiable for defeating transnational criminal networks.

A core point of Paraison’s address centered on the systemic imbalance fueling Haiti’s crisis: while Haiti abides by international arms controls and lacks a domestic defense industry, criminal gangs operating across its territory benefit from a steady, unimpeded flow of advanced heavy weaponry. He emphasized that the bravery of Haitian security forces on the front lines cannot alone resolve a crisis whose roots stretch far beyond Haiti’s national borders. Unchecked arms smuggling, he said, continues to fuel terrorist activity and prevent any path to lasting stability, requiring urgent multilateral commitment to close cross-border trafficking routes.

In a striking rebuke of diluted framing of the crisis, Paraison called on the international community to abandon language that minimizes the severity of the threat facing Haiti. The armed groups operating in the country are not merely loose collections of delinquents, he argued: through their brutal tactics and deliberate campaign of civilian terror, they qualify as full-fledged terrorist organizations. What Haiti is confronting today, he added, is not isolated street crime, but the expanding reach of a global hybrid criminal network. This network, fueled by the dangerous convergence of arms trafficking, drug smuggling, and money laundering, poses a threat not only to Haiti’s national stability but to the entire Caribbean region’s security.

To embed this priority in global governance, Paraison urged that United Nations Police priorities be systematically integrated into the core agenda of all major international forums focused on peace and global security. Only through robust, coordinated collective action, he said, can the international community build a more secure global order.

Paraison concluded his address by reiterating Haiti’s deep gratitude to the international community, and specifically the United Nations, for ongoing support through the Global Security Fund (GSF) in Haiti’s relentless campaign against criminal networks. Even as it welcomes international partnership, he reaffirmed, the Haitian government maintains that national security remains the primary sovereign responsibility of Haitian state institutions. Mandated by the Haitian Constitution, the Haitian National Police and Armed Forces of Haiti are working tirelessly to restore peace, public order, and freedom of movement for all Haitian citizens, and the country remains confident that it will ultimately succeed in this mission.

“Let us work towards a secure world, a better Haiti,” Paraison said, closing his address.

On Thursday, September 10, 2026, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation flight carrying Haitian migrants descended into chaos after multiple avoidable disruptions left dozens of repatriated people subjected to inhumane treatment and overwhelmed Haitian migration authorities scrambling to provide basic support. What was supposed to be a scheduled midday arrival at Cap-Haitien’s Hugo Chávez International Airport turned into a 7-hour delayed landing after sunset, in the middle of torrential rain, and long after all Haitian government offices had closed for the day.

The journey of these migrants began at 7:34 a.m. when Global X charter flight 6122 first departed Alexandria, Louisiana, headed for a stopover in South Florida. What followed was hours of unexplained holding at Opa-locka airport, with the plane only departing for Haiti at 5:10 p.m. It finally touched down in Cap-Haitien at 7:05 p.m. Compounding this delay was the fact that all 98 deportees on board had been kept in shackles for more than 13 hours before they even landed, a period that does not include their total flight time.

In addition to the unanticipated delay, ICE violated pre-existing agreements with Haiti’s National Migration Office (ONM) by adding 27 extra deportees to the flight without any prior notification, pushing the total number of returnees from the planned 71 to 98. The sudden increase stretched the ONM’s already tight operating budget to breaking point, turning what should have been a standard reception process into an arduous, underfunded emergency.

Prior to this flight, Haitian authorities had planned to increase the standard reentry assistance stipend for deportees from the longstanding $80 to $200 per person, to help returnees cover travel and basic living costs after arriving back in Haiti. But the unplanned surge in numbers, paired with the late-hour arrival, left the agency without enough funding to deliver the increased stipend or even cover temporary accommodation for the group.

Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, Director General of the ONM, explained the structural issues created by ICE’s disregard for agreed protocols. “The cut-off time for receiving a plane is 1:00 or 2:00 PM, as it takes us two to three hours to provide assistance to these migrants. In Haiti, we work from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM,” Delva said in a media statement.

Despite the severe logistical challenges and poor weather, Haitian on-ground staff managed to provide all 98 returnees with a hot meal and the official documentation forwarded by U.S. authorities. The group of returnees included a diverse cross-section of people with longstanding ties to the U.S.: 15 had entered the country through the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program, dozens were active asylum seekers, one was a legal U.S. green card holder, and 50 had been residing in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Two young children were also on the flight: a 3-year-old U.S. citizen and a 6-year-old born in Brazil.

Delva confirmed that mobilized ONM staff did not finish processing all deportees and leave the airport until after 2:00 a.m. the next day. “This has a cost,” Delva emphasized, noting that the agency also incurred unexpected costs for emergency bus requisition to transport the group. “It’s a problem for us; it’s demoralizing.”

The September 10 flight is part of a recent surge in ICE deportations of Haitian nationals from the United States, following the termination of Haiti’s TPS designation, according to prior reporting on the ongoing repatriation operation.

As Haiti prepares to hold its long-awaited presidential and legislative elections later this year, a top regional official has sounded an urgent alarm over hidden ties between the country’s political actors and violent criminal gangs that could undermine the entire democratic process.

During a public press briefing this Thursday, Organization of American States Secretary General Albert Ramdin pulled back the curtain on an open secret in the country: “There is a certain collusion between the political world and the gangs. I am saying this clearly because everyone knows it, but no one is talking about it.”

Ramdin, who completed an official visit to Haiti in August to assess pre-election conditions, told reporters he had already raised the issue directly with Haitian national authorities. During those discussions, he pushed for the implementation of strict, transparent eligibility rules that would bar candidates tied to armed criminal organizations from appearing on election ballots. To date, however, he said the government has not provided any clear, actionable response to his proposal.

Ramdin added that a full accounting of the damage caused by these political-criminal links will not be possible until all participating candidates are vetted and their connections properly documented. Without robust guardrails in place, the credibility of the final election results will almost certainly be called into question, he warned.

For the OAS, resolving Haiti’s years-long political and humanitarian crisis is a top institutional priority. In his briefing, Ramdin pinpointed widespread, gang-fueled insecurity as the single biggest barrier to holding free, fair, and accessible elections. He also raised sharp questions about the performance of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), the multinational security mission deployed to stabilize the country, noting that some nations that had previously pledged support to the mission have failed to follow through on their commitments.

“Holding elections depends on a favorable security climate,” Ramdin insisted, referencing the unrelenting wave of violence that has ravaged Haitian communities for the better part of a decade. Current official electoral timelines schedule the first round of presidential and legislative voting for December 13, 2026, with a second round set to follow on February 21, 2027.

The scale of the country’s security crisis underscores the gravity of Ramdin’s warning. Latest data from the United Nations shows that gang-related violence killed at least 3,050 people and injured another 1,401 across Haiti in just the first six months of 2026, a death toll that highlights how far security forces are from reasserting control over much of the country.