AFP

WASHINGTON — The United States on Mon­day granted Haitians liv­ing ille­gally in the coun­try before January’s dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake a six-month exten­sion to apply for a spe­cial asy­lum relief program.

In the days after the Jan­u­ary 12 earth­quake, Pres­i­dent Barack Obama’s admin­is­tra­tion gave Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Sta­tus (TPS) to thou­sands of Haitians who have sneaked into the United States in the past years.

An immi­grant granted TPS can stay legally in the United States for 18 months with­out fear of depor­ta­tion, and fol­low­ing a review of their case, can obtain a tem­po­rary work permit.

“Eli­gi­ble Hait­ian nation­als will have an addi­tional 180 days to apply for Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Sta­tus,” said a state­ment from the depart­ment of US Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion Services.

“Many Haitians need more time to apply for TPS,” the state­ment added.

Only Haitians liv­ing in the United States prior to the earth­quake that flat­tened the cap­i­tal Port-au-Prince and sur­round­ing towns at the cost of some 250,000 lives are eligible.

The new dead­line for appli­ca­tions to be filed is Jan­u­ary 18, 2011.

The spe­cial pro­tec­tion, which allows groups of ille­gal immi­grants to renew or obtain dri­vers licenses, and work legally, is meant as relief for coun­tries reel­ing from nat­ural dis­as­ter or polit­i­cal strife.

Sup­port­ers argue that the move helps Haiti to rebuild, as immi­grants send remit­tances to loved ones in the poor­est coun­try in the Amer­i­cas, which is strug­gling to rebuild exactly six months after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

Before the order was given in Jan­u­ary, author­i­ties had been pro­cess­ing depor­ta­tion orders for 30,000 Haitians now in the United States.

The non-profit Migra­tion Pol­icy Insti­tute how­ever says 76,000 ille­gal immi­grants from Haiti live in the United States, with a fur­ther 535,000 legally resid­ing here, two thirds of them being adults of a work­ing age.

Hun­dreds of Haitians attempt the per­ilous 700-mile (1,100-kilometer) jour­ney to the Florida coast each year, some in rafts, oth­ers smug­gled by traffickers.

But US offi­cials esti­mate that thou­sands of Haitians have died at sea in failed bids to flee the poverty, unrest and nat­ural dis­as­ters that have beset their home­land for decades.

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