UN chief wants $40.5 million for Haiti cholera victims
2:30 PM Thursday May 25, 2017
UNITED NATIONS (AP) " Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is asking U.N. member states to transfer $40.5 million in unspent funds from Haiti's peacekeeping mission to help communities and victims of a cholera outbreak that has afflicted over 800,000 people, according to a report released Tuesday.
Guterres said in the report to the Security Council that the money is desperately needed for a trust fund that the U.N. had hoped would raise $400 million to provide aid to the families of victims and afflicted communities, and to help eradicate the disease.
So far, the report said only $2.67 million has been contributed to the fund from Chile, France, India, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Britain. Canada and Japan have separately contributed $8.5 million to assist Haiti.
The Security Council voted unanimously last month to end the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti in mid-October after 13 years. The peacekeepers helped normalize a country in chaos after political upheaval in 2004, but U.N. troops from Nepal were widely blamed for introducing cholera to Haiti after a devastating earthquake in 2010. The death toll as of April was over 9,500.
For years the U.N. had denied or been silent on the longstanding allegations that it was responsible for the outbreak, while responding to lawsuits in U.S. courts by claiming diplomatic immunity. Last August, a U.S. appeals court upheld the United Nations' immunity from a lawsuit filed on behalf of 5,000 Haitian cholera victims who blame the U.N. for the epidemic.
After the ruling, then secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said he deeply regretted the suffering that cholera has caused and the U.N. had a moral responsibility to the victims. He later apologized for the U.N. not doing enough to contain the spread of cholera and announced a new U.N. approach to eliminate the disease which sought to raise $400 million.
Guterres asked the 193 U.N. member states to consider voluntarily waiving the return of the $40.5 million balance and credits in the 2015-16 budget for the Haiti peacekeeping mission and put the money in the cholera trust fund.
In a renewed effort to raise voluntary contributions, Guterres said he has also written to every member state and has decided to appoint a high-level envoy "to develop a comprehensive fundraising strategy." He said several countries have responded to his letter "and some additional voluntary contributions are anticipated."
Haiti quake survivor a BPS valedictorian
Marie Szaniszlo Wednesday, May 31, 2017
When Carmelissa Norbrun gives the valedictory address on June 8 for Boston Green Academy, it will mark the climax of a long journey that has brought her from the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere to the richest, and from tragedy to triumph.
The journey began on Jan. 12, 2010, while she and her two sisters were doing their homework as they sat on the steps of their home in Pernier, a village near Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
“Suddenly, the ground started rolling under my feet, and my mother grabbed me and my sisters,” said Norbrun, one of 38 Boston Public Schools class valedictorians honored yesterday at a luncheon at the Boston Harbor Hotel. “It wasn’t longer than 30 seconds.”
The 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed as many as 316,000 people and left another 1.5 million homeless.
Like many people, her family lived in a tent for months, during which lawlessness in parts of the country reigned.
TPS for Haitians : DHS chief Kelly turns to Congress
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly continued to cast uncertaintyThursday on the fate of tens of thousands of Haitians who have been temporarily allowed to live and work in the United States, but he said Congress may ultimately resolve the issue by changing the legislation.
“This is squarely on them,” Kelly said in an interview with the Miami Herald about the Temporary Protective Status, or TPS, program that nationals from Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and six other countries are currently enrolled in. “I have a law that I am supposed to enforce and I think the members of Congress who are interested in this, and there are a lot of them, should probably sit down and talk about it and come up with some legislation to fix it. I think it’s on them.”
Kelly made a brief stop in Miami after a trip to Haiti Wednesday where he spent more than an hour discussing TPS and other Trump administration concerns with new Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and senior officials with the government and the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
His suggestion to Moïse: Start thinking about how to bring Haiti’s nearly 60,000 TPS recipients back to their home country by issuing travel documents or identification.
“TPS is not supposed to continue to be enforced until Haiti’s like Jamaica, or any country with a very functioning democracy [or] a relatively low unemployment rate. That’s not the point of it,” said Kelly, pushing back on critics who argue abruptly ending TPS will quickly harm the country’s already fragile economy.
Kelly: US-Haiti to 'Work Together' on Future Extensions for Haitians
June 01, 2017 2:23 PM
The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, visiting Haiti on Wednesday, assured the Caribbean nation’s leader that their respective governments could "work together on any future extensions" of the timetable for Haitians facing repatriation from the United States.
Secretary John Kelly met with Haitian President Jovenel Moise and other senior government officials less than two weeks after Homeland Security announced that a humanitarian aid program for Haitians temporarily living in the United States would be limited to a six-month extension.
Haitian authorities, some U.S. lawmakers and immigration advocates had sought at least another year. Previous renewals had been for 18 months.
About 58,000 Haitian immigrants are registered for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), offered in the wake of a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck near Haiti's capital in January 2010. TPS permits those visiting the United States at the time of the quake to temporarily remain in the country, with work privileges, until conditions in their homeland improve. TPS for Haitians was set to expire July 23 and has been extended through January 22.
Emphasis on 'temporary'
Haiti is one of 10 countries currently designated for the TPS program by Homeland Security because conditions there make it unsafe or impossible for nationals to return. Those conditions include armed conflict and environmental disasters such as drought.
During his visit, Kelly stressed that the U.S. humanitarian program for Haitians was never meant to be permanent.
"The operative word in the law is ‘temporary.’ It’s not meant to be an open-ended law, but a temporary law," he said at a news conference at the National Palace.
Later, in a separate interview with Port-au-Prince’s RFM Radio, Kelly indicated Haiti’s TPS deadline might be extended beyond January.
"I will clearly have to make a decision on this in November or December, so I will be looking for indicators," Kelly told radio journalist Rothchild Francois Jr., who shared the interview with VOA.
"Right now, my thoughts are [that] it will end. So I’d have to look for indicators as to why we might extend it a short period into the future past January," he continued, adding that the program "is designed to end and not go on forever … which some of them seem to do."
Haitian women press for recognition from U.N. peacekeeper fathers
By Makini Brice | PORT-SALUT, HAITI
For Roseleine Duperval, the United Nations mission to stabilise Haiti will always remind her of one thing - her 8-year-old daughter, who she says was fathered by a Uruguayan peacekeeper.
Duperval is among a group of Haitian women who embarked on a long and largely fruitless journey to try to force peacekeepers who they say fathered their children to contribute to their upbringing. While some have succeeded with their paternity claims, barely any have secured any form of child support.
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"Since I became pregnant, he never sent money," said Duperval, who still has identity documents she says her daughter Sasha Francesca's father left behind, apparently because he wanted to be legally recognised as the father. "I have to call friends all the time to help me support my (child)."
The paternity and child support issue is another awkward legacy of the 13-year U.N. mission, known as MINUSTAH, which is winding up in October after being sent in to stabilize a country riven by political turmoil. The mission introduced a cholera epidemic that killed about 10,000 people and has also been dogged by accusations of sexual assault.
Paternity cases in recent years have confirmed seven children in Haiti as having had U.N. peacekeepers as their fathers, according to figures released on the peacekeeping body's conduct and discipline website. More than two dozen Haitian women are still pursuing paternity claims, second only to Democratic Republic of Congo in the number of claims against a U.N. mission worldwide since 2010, according to U.N. data.
The cases also highlight a lack of accountability, critics say, since many of the women's paternity claims are never confirmed either way. Even when paternity is proven, the process rarely delivers any financial support for mothers.
Under the United Nations' "zero-tolerance policy" against sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual relationships between peacekeepers and residents of countries hosting a U.N. mission are strongly discouraged.
However, the world body says its peacekeeping arm does not take responsibility for financial assistance to children fathered by peacekeepers. It says the peacekeepers' countries, or the fathers themselves, must organise payment.
In practice, that often means mothers must raise children alone in some of the world's poorest, most troubled nations.
"If you ignore the problem of paternity long enough, it will go away," said Sharanya Kanikkannan, from the New York-based advocacy group Code Blue, which aims to end impunity for sexual abuse by U.N. personnel. "Missions move on; children grow up."
WAITING FOR ANSWERS
A Reuters reporter interviewed four women in the Haitian seaside town of Port-Salut, who had, along with their children, undergone DNA tests with a view to establishing paternity.
They said U.N. officials tracked them down in 2014 by asking members of the local community who claimed to have given birth to "MINUSTAH babies" to come to the capital, Port-au-Prince, for tests.
Ismini Palla, spokeswoman for U.N. peacekeeping in New York, confirmed the DNA tests took place. She said the United Nations facilitated tests but did not provide them. It was not immediately clear who provided or paid for the tests.
The four women's samples were sent to Uruguay, the country of origin of the supposed fathers. Uruguayan authorities were tasked with locating the men and conducting their own DNA tests, Palla said.
Of the four Port-Salut women interviewed by Reuters, DNA testing proved two of the Uruguayan peacekeepers were the fathers, Palla said.
However, the other two claims, including Duperval's, could not be confirmed because the Uruguayan military was unable to locate the alleged fathers, Palla
All four women Reuters interviewed said the United Nations had never communicated to them the test results. Palla disputed this.
MIXED LEGACY
Haitian lawyer Mario Joseph represents 10 women, including Duperval, who say they had children with U.N. peacekeepers. He said he planned to file a lawsuit against the United Nations in Haitian courts for child support, although it was not clear when.
"The United Nations, which promotes human rights, does not respect the rights of Haitians," said Joseph.
Worldwide, U.N. peacekeeping missions have faced 111 paternity claims, according to U.N. data. Only 17 claims worldwide have been confirmed, including the seven from Haiti. Figures are not publicly available from before 2010.
The United Nations has pledged fresh efforts to increase support to victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, like a report presented by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in February that vowed to put victims first.
But the United Nations has announced actions against sexual abuse before, and critics question whether the proposed measures will address underlying issues.
"These aren't people who are asking for charity," said Kanikkannan, from the Code Blue group. "These are people who are asking for rights."
'Guns-For-Charity' Solicitor Sentenced for Illegal Weapons
A Los Angeles newspaper publisher who asked people to donate guns for Haiti earthquake relief has been sentenced for illegally possessing weapons.
| May 26, 2017
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles neighborhood newspaper publisher who asked people to donate guns for Haiti earthquake relief has been sentenced for illegally possessing the weapons.
The Los Angeles Daily News (http://bit.ly/2rZl90C ) says 75-year-old David DeMulle was sentenced Monday to 41 months in prison.
DeMulle owned The Foothills Paper, which covers news in LA's Sunland-Tujunga area.
Authorities say he's also a gun enthusiast and a convicted felon who cannot legally have firearms.
Police say in 2010, DeMulle printed an ad in his paper seeking guns that supposedly would be sold to raise money for earthquake relief in Haiti.
Police who searched DeMulle's home said they found two dozen rifles and other firearms and about a half-ton of ammunition.
Immigration activists and lawyers offer Haitians hope, vowing TPS fight is not over
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
For 29 years, Evette Prosper has called the United States home. It’s where she attended school, got married and gave birth to two children, now 8 and 7.
An only child, Prosper doesn’t know where her father is. And both her Haitian mother, and her grandmother — who migrated with her from Haiti when she was just a year old — are dead.
But her husband of 11 years is a U.S. citizen. That should place her squarely in the category of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, holders that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security referred to when, announcing a six-month TPS extension last week for Haitians, it said many of the 58,700 recipients could adjust their status to remain and work legally in the United States on a permanent basis.
But Prosper, who was born in the Bahamas, which doesn’t automatically grant citizenship, has neither a Bahamian nor a Haitian passport. And with no proof that she ever entered the U.S., adjusting her immigration status is almost impossible unless she can leave and reenter the country. She is, as one immigration lawyer put it, stateless. Her case exemplifies the challenges some TPS recipients face as they seek to move from temporary to permanent U.S. residency.
“It’s very overwhelming on your future,” Prosper, 30, said. “You don’t know if you should seek future plans. I’ve never been to jail, never been in a cop’s car before. It’s kind of scary not knowing what the future holds.”
On Thursday, Prosper was among dozens of Haitians who poured into the Little Haiti Cultural Complex in Miami hoping to find answers from a panel of immigration lawyers. The town hall-style discussion, one of several that will be offered in coming months, was organized by Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami/Haitian Women of Miami and other immigration rights groups.
Prosper, like many others, is fearful of possible deportation and what that could do to her family, especially after DHS advised Haitian TPS recipients to get their affairs in order.
“What will they do with people who have kids?” she asked the lawyers at the meeting.
“That’s a very good question,” said Adonia Simpson, supervising attorney for Americans for Immigrant Justice’s Children’s Legal Programs, which represents unaccompanied immigrant children.
“You need to think hard about potentially what you want to happen to your children,” Simpson advised. “Make sure your children have passports, documents.”
Sensing the panic among some in the room, Catholic Charities Legal Services attorney Georges Francis said: “Don’t freak out. Be calm.”
“TPS has not ended yet,” Francis said. “It’s been extended for six months.”
Last week, after months of advocacy, letters and protests, DHS Secretary John Kelly announced that the immigration benefit, provided by the Obama administration to Haiti in the days after its devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, would be extended an additional six months. Instead of expiring on July 22, TPS for Haiti will now expire on Jan. 22.