Haitian refugee crisis

The Haitian refugee crisis, which began in 1991, saw the US Coast Guard collect Haitian refugees and take them to a refugee camp at Guantanamo Bay. They were fleeing by boat after Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically elected president of Haiti, was overthrown and the military government was persecuting his followers. The first camp reached a maximum of 12,500 people. It was then reduced to 270 refugees who either had HIV or were related to someone who did. The reduction was the result of the US policy adopting a strict policy of repatriation for both those found at sea and most of those living in Guantanamo. The HIV+ refugees were quarantined in a section of the military base known as Camp Bulkeley and faced human rights violations. They were brought to the United States after US District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. ruled the camp was an "HIV prison camp."

Haitian refugee crisis
Part of the aftermath of the
1991 Haitian coup d'état
Most Haitian refugees were interned in a tent camp on a disused air terminal at Guantanamo, seen here.
Date1991-1994
LocationGuantanamo Bay Naval Base
ParticipantsHaitian boat people
Government of the United States
Outcome
  • HIV outbreak at refugee camp
  • Refugees either immigrated or repatriated (forcibly and voluntarily)

In 1994, Guantanamo was again used as a refugee camp. This time both Cubans and Haitians were detained. Roughly 50,000 refugees were held at the camp. There were several important court cases and policies made that determined conditions and often location for the refugees. Haitians stopped being held at Guantanamo the mid 1990s. The number of Haitian asylum statuses granted varied throughout the use of the military base as a refugee camp. It was as high 30% in the early 1990s and as low as 5% in 1994. Those who were repatriated were handed over to Haitian officials who made a file of them including photos and fingerprints labeling them to be Aristide supporters which was a dangerous title to have at the time. Guantanamo was chosen to be a refugee camp because it was in between the US and Haiti and also primarily existed outside the jurisdiction of US constitutional law.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.