Caricom now faces an even bigger challenge of seeking to reverse the current situation in Haiti, owing to a deepening of the humanitarian crisis in Port-au-Prince and the recent election of Donald Trump in the United States.
Trump’s victory has added a new layer of uncertainty for the country, which is already grappling with increasing gang violence, food insecurity and displacement, and no doubt eager to see whether the US president-elect will indeed carry through with his plan for mass deportation of migrants once he takes office in January.
To make matters worse, the main airport in Port-au-Prince was shut down on Monday after a Spirit Airlines flight was hit by gunfire. In response, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric warned yesterday that this would mean "limiting the flow of humanitarian aid and humanitarian personnel into the country.”
This amounts to another major setback for Haiti, where nearly half of the population is already experiencing acute food insecurity, and 1.4 million people are at risk of famine.
While Caricom, which accepted Haiti as a full member in July 2002, has sought several pathways to bring about relief, including its recent focus on creating and facilitating the transitional presidential council in the interest of good governance and ensuring broader participation beyond traditional political elites in Haiti, that too suffered a blow this week as the council fired prime minister Garry Conille after six months in office and named Alix Didier Fils-Aimé his successor.
This tells us that work towards political stability, which is so critical to Haiti regaining the credibility of its people and the international community, is at the starting block once again.
Caricom must now redouble efforts to ensure that both the council and prime minister prioritise the needs of the Haitian people above any personal interests if this credibility is to be returned while allowing more developed countries with better resources to work towards the suppression of gang activity and returning the country to a state of safety.
Time, however, is not on Haiti’s side, as there is no certainty that the incoming Trump administration would delay the threatened deportation of Haitian migrants until the country is stable again.
And therein lies a serious challenge for the region along political and social lines.
Any immediate move by the Trump administration to return Haitian migrants to the country as it is today must be rejected on humanitarian grounds by Caricom, speaking as one voice in international fora.
This could seriously strain diplomatic relations with the US, which so many Caricom countries rely on for their own economic development.
Then there are the economic ramifications of increased deportations, as remittances sent by Haitians living in the US to their families in Haiti contribute to the country's struggling economy.
World Bank data shows that remittances are a crucial source of income for many Haiti families, amounting to roughly US$3.5 billion in 2023, and as deportations rise, this flow of money would diminish sharply, exacerbating poverty levels in Haiti and potentially destabilising its economy further.
With the country unable to offer proper reintegration programmes or support, the expectation is for an increased spillover impact, with more Haitians seeking to migrate to neighbouring countries, especially the Dominican Republic and Jamaica–which have been struggling with this problem.
The overall impact will depend significantly on how both US policies evolve within the Trump administration and how Caricom responds collectively to these challenges.
What is clear now, however, is that if Caricom does not prioritise Haiti as an urgent problem now, it is likely to become a bigger challenge in the not-too-distant future.
