Haiti’s leader warns of crisis from Trump's policies

Leslie Voltaire, the President of Haiti's Transitional Presidential Council, has warned that recent decisions by the Trump administration—specifically to freeze aid programmes, deport migrants, and block refugees—will have "catastrophic" consequences for Haiti.

In an interview with The Associated Press in Rome on Saturday, following a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, Voltaire expressed concern that the loss of U.S. humanitarian assistance would dramatically worsen the already dire situation in Haiti.

“Trump said that Haiti is a shithole, so I don't think he will care about Haiti. The Dominican Republic president (Luis) Abinader is also (stumbles on his words), he is exporting rapid repatriation of 10-thousands Haitians a week. And also with the gang situation, we have a lot of IDP, internally displaced person, that amount like 700-thousand people. The World Food Program is helping. The International Migration Organization is helping, but it's not enough. The situation will be catastrophic,” Voltaire said.

Haiti's leader said that there are roughly 1.5 million Haitians in the United States and roughly 150-thousand who were accepted under a program called the “Temporary Protection System.”

“Trump says that he will expel all of them,” Voltaire said, adding that Haiti, which is already struggling with hunger and internally displaced people, cannot handle the influx.

In a report released this month, the U.N. migration agency said internal displacement within Haiti has tripled over the last year and now surpasses one million people.

The situation has been largely caused by gang violence in the Caribbean country.

The new figure provided by the International Organization for Migration represents a record for Haiti.

IOM said that “relentless gang violence” in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince has fueled a near-doubling of displacement in the city and a collapse of health care and other services and worsening food insecurity.

About 200-thousand people have been forcibly returned to Haiti over the last year, mostly from Dominican Republic.

Voltaire and his transitional government have been tasked with leading the country to general elections, an elusive goal but he is convinced they can make it happen by next November despite powerful gangs that rule 85% of the capital and are gaining ground in surrounding areas.

Nevertheless, Voltaire is positive that if Haiti's multinational police force is boosted with several thousand additional officers, they can go ahead with elections this year.

Kenya is leading the multinational police force with a total deployment of more than 600, below the one-thousand officers the country’s president pledged.

An additional 150 Guatemalans and an advance team of eight Salvadorean troops have also arrived, but the force remains far below its anticipated strength of 2,500 officers. Voltaire said Benin has pledged an additional two-thousand soldiers.

The power of gangs in Haiti has grown since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Some gangs have even indicated they want to be part of the political process.

Voltaire excluded that possibility.

More than 5,600 people were reported killed across Haiti last year, according to the United Nations.

The number of killings increased by more than 20% compared with all of 2023, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office.

Last week U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that gangs could overrun the capital, Port-au-Prince, leading to a complete breakdown of government authority without additional international support for the beleaguered national police.

Voltaire said he asked the pontiff to organize an international conference of solidarity for Haiti.

The Pope wrote “international conference” on a sheet of paper, Voltaire said, and later the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, told him the Vatican would try to convince Mexico and Canada to participate in funding a conference on Haiti.

Voltaire will be meeting with French President Emanuel Macron of France next week to seek additional help for Haiti.