US envoy to Haiti Daniel Foote quits, criticises migrant expulsions from Texas camp
- The diplomat said conditions in Haiti were so bad that US officials were confined to secure compounds
- The US has deported some 1,400 migrants from the Del Rio camp to Haiti
The US envoy to Haiti dramatically resigned on Thursday in a letter that excoriated Washington for deporting hundreds of migrants to the crisis-engulfed Caribbean nation from a border camp in recent days.
The resignation was confirmed by a senior official at the US State Department.
“I will not be associated with the United States’ inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants,” Daniel Foote said in a letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that circulated publicly on Thursday.
Foote submitted his resignation to Blinken on Wednesday, a State Department spokesperson said, adding that Washington was committed to the long-term well being of Haiti, as well as offering immediate help to returning migrants.
Foote, a career diplomat named in July as special envoy to Haiti, said conditions in the country were so bad that US officials were confined to secure compounds.
He said the “collapsed state” was unable to support the infusion of returning migrants.
US launches mass expulsion of migrants from Texas, likely biggest in decades
As many as 14,000 people gathered in the camp last week, with the population now reduced to less than half by expulsion flights and detentions. Others have left the dusty riverbank for Mexico to avoid being sent home.
Images of US border guards on horseback using long reins to whip at black asylum seekers at the weekend caused outrage within the White House and from rights groups.
The United States has returned 1,401 migrants from the camp at Del Rio, Texas, to Haiti and taken another 3,206 people into custody, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said late on Wednesday.
Wade McMullen, a lawyer with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organisation, said several hundred people, mostly pregnant women and parents with children, had been released in Del Rio, Texas, over the past several days.
Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN refugee agency, warned that the US expulsions to Haiti might violate international law.
