The worst-kept secret in Haiti: the UN's cruise ship hotel

Haitians who escaped to US by chance released
Miami, Florida (AFP) April 1, 2010 - A group of Haitians who landed almost by chance in the United States without documents in the chaotic aftermath of the quake were released Thursday after several weeks in detention. Some of the Haitians went to the Port-au-Prince airport looking for food, some for work. Then, amid the chaos, US Marines waved them onto a plane. They were suddenly bound for the United States, with no documents or visas. This is roughly what happened to more than 30 Haitians who found themselves at the international airport right after the January 12 quake, and were promptly locked up on arrival in South Florida. However, after two and a half months in detention, 32 of the Haitians were released, said Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) executive director Cheryl Little.

Immigrant advocates and lawyers say the group includes mostly unrelated men and women who went to the airport as aid shipments poured in, and saw an unexpected, brief opportunity to leave the devastation. One of them, for example, was waved onto a plane with family members who were US citizens, to accompany a child. Many in the group are deeply traumatized, said FIAC statewide director Charu al-Sahli, who has worked closely with detainees. Al-Sahli said one man lost his three-year-old daughter in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Another has had no news of his nine-year-old twins, while a third lost both parents. "It's striking to me how many are clearly showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder," said al-Sahli, adding that one of the detainees has suffered several panic attacks in detention. "It's been two and a half months that most of these people have been detained. They were waved onto a plane. They committed no criminal act."

FIAC had been asking the government for several weeks to release the Haitians into the care of relatives who are US citizens. Ronise Augustin, of Hallandale, in South Florida, said she received a call early Thursday from her detained brother, Emmanuel Philogene, to say he was about to be released. "He sounded so happy... I'm happy he's going to be with me," she said. But she said her brother, who lost his young daughter in the quake was "not doing okay. He's always crying." Other family members were still missing. "A lot of people in our family, we don't see them. If you haven't seen someone, you lost them," she said. One detainee told FIAC he had gone to the airport seeking work. He found a job loading planes and when he was asked to push a wheelchair-bound patient into an aircraft, he made a nervous, snap decision to stay aboard.

None of the detainees seemed to plan their US voyage. Al-Sahli said they didn't bring any belongings and didn't carry phone numbers for US-based relatives, making it difficult to track them down. The first 10 individualized release requests were sent to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 12. US immigration authorities stopped deporting Haitians months before the earthquake hit, unless they had a criminal record. After the earthquake, the US suspended criminal deportations too. Concerned over the prospect of a mass exodus after the Haiti quake, US immigration authorities are keeping a tight watch on the ocean routes that Haitians have used in the past to make a risky run at US shores. The White House has extended a special immigration shield known as TPS (Temporary Protected Status) to Haitians, meaning undocumented Haitian immigrants can obtain work permits and legal status for the time being.

by Staff Writers
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) April 1, 2010
Deep within the labyrinthine complex of huts at the UN logistics base in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince is a small office where staff sign up to stay on a cruise ship called the Ola Esmeralda.

For some this is smart, out-of-the-box thinking to accommodate aid workers in a hazardous post-quake environment, for others it is a blazing symbol of excess that shows just how out of touch the United Nations is from the task at hand.

There is a second smaller luxury ship, the Sea Voyager, berthed in port but also offering air-conditioned en suite rooms to hundreds of staff for a heavily subsidized rate of 40 dollars a night, including breakfast and dinner.

"It's the best deal in town," a UN worker told AFP on condition of anonymity, refusing to comment on stories of late-night partying on the ships but saying the proper rate should be around 150 dollars.

A UN coordinator who started living on the Sea Voyager because her house was destroyed by the quake told AFP she was happy because she had stopped working endless hours and sleeping in her office.

"Obviously some people are complaining because it is a long way away, 40 minutes by bus, but it's great, how can we complain, we have air-con, we have food, the mosquitos are under control," she said.

The UN lost a record number of staff in the quake and has worked extremely hard since to place Haiti on the road to recovery but there is an obvious danger of perception regarding the bizarre accommodation arrangement.

The UN peacekeeping force MINUSTAH has long been viewed with suspicion here by the masses of urban poor and even if there is no other viable solution, it doesn't look good.

"If the UN is living on a cruise ship, it is the perfect metaphor for how they are viewed here in the country," said Richard Morse, the 52-year-old owner of Port-au-Prince's iconic Hotel Oloffson.

"If they think quake refugees should be living on cruise ships, then they should get cruise ships for the Haitian people, that's all I'm saying. Unless of course I am misinterpreting this and they really are better than Haitians."

Sarah Muscroft, the deputy head of mission for the UN's Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the reason ships were being used was because member states insisted on safe housing for staff.

"That is the reason why there is a boat here because the member states have basically said you have to have our nationals who work for you in non-prefab buildings," Muscroft said.

Informed sources told AFP that the 1,200-tonne, 175-foot Sea Voyager is on a three-month lease that started mid-February, while the Ola Esmeralda is on a six-month lease from mid-March.

The 11,000-tonne, 140-meter (460-foot) long Ola Esmeralda had two bars, a casino, three restaurants and an outdoor pool back in its heyday as a cruise ship, when it was known as the Black Prince.

At least one bar still operates, providing UN workers with the chance to unwind in a secure environment offshore, well away from the putrid camps where hundreds of thousands of survivors struggle to eke out a post-quake existence.

It is this detachment from the people they are supposed to be trying to protect that infuriates Morse, who said MINUSTAH should just leave if they are not going to help the Haitian poor.

"The UN mandate here is to keep the urban poor in check, that's their mandate here, their mandate is not to keep the elites from being corrupt, their mandate is not to keep the Haitian government from being corrupt," he said.

"Maybe not everyone can articulate it, but if you sit down in a conversation and you are speaking Creole with some people, you are going to hear them end up criticizing the UN."

Megan B, a medical officer on the Sea Voyager described on her blog site on February 16 the first arrivals for the floating hotel.

"15 UN people came aboard for the night. They were so excited just to be able to take a shower, and have water that stayed warm.

The following Sunday she wrote: "Most of the people spend time in the bar, and do that each night. After working all day in Haiti, so would I. These people like to party. That is for sure."

Muscroft said the UN was well aware of the problems of perception but admitted: "In reality it's quite difficult to make sure that that is at the forefront of what we're doing all the time."

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World raises nearly 10 billion dollars for quake-hit Haiti
United Nations (AFP) March 31, 2010
The global community on Wednesday pledged nearly 10 billion dollars for Haiti over more than three years to put the quake-ravaged nation back on its feet. As part of the 9.9-billion-dollar total, UN member states and international organizations participating in a donors' conference here pledged 5.3 billion dollars for the 2010-2011 period, far exceeding the 3.8 billion that was sought by con ... read more

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