CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

Extraordinary Conditions

A Statutory Analysis of Haiti’s Qualification for TPS 1

This report presents the extraordinary conditions in Haiti that prevent nationals from safely returning. This report also discusses the unique political moment in which Haiti finds itself—a moment which contributes to the country’s challenges with stability and security, impeding its ability to safely receive its nationals. But it also shows where progress has been made, demonstrating that the conditions described here—while together constituting a pressing social and public health crisis—remain temporary. 

Since the U.S. government designated Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in January 2010 after one of the world’s worst natural disasters, the country has undergone two additional catastrophes: the outbreak of cholera, introduced into Haiti’s waterways through reckless sanitation at a United Nations military base, and Hurricane Matthew, the strongest hurricane to hit Haiti in more than half a century. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designates countries for TPS in cases of ongoing armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions that prevent the nationals of those countries who have emigrated from safely returning to their home country. The DHS redesignated Haiti for TPS in 2011, emphasizing the gravity of the damage that the earthquake had caused and the severity of one of the world’s worst cholera outbreaks. TPS has been extended for Haiti four times since redesignation. 

The conditions for which TPS is in effect remain, making it unsafe for Haitian nationals to return. These conditions include a housing crisis that has left families stranded in camps and in unsafe, makeshift shelters to this day; a cholera outbreak, sparked by United Nations troops just 10 months after the earthquake, which has caused nearly 10,000 deaths and more than 815,000 cases of illness—in a country of fewer than 11 million people; and a period of extreme hunger and malnutrition caused by drought and storms and exacerbated by the economic shocks of the earthquake and Hurricane Matthew. Matthew hit one of Haiti’s key food-producing areas. 

Although these events and conditions are extraordinary and harsh, they are temporary. The Haitian government has made impressive progress in reducing the number of cases of cholera and resulting deaths. As of 2017, Haiti finally has an elected president and a full parliament, for the first time since 2012. 

This report presents the extraordinary conditions in Haiti that prevent nationals from safely returning today. This report also discusses the unique political moment in which Haiti finds itself—a moment which contributes to the country’s challenges with stability and security, impeding its ability to safely receive its nationals. But it also shows where progress has been made, demonstrating that the conditions described here—while together constituting a pressing social and public health crisis—remain temporary.