Haiti Asylum Information Project

Wel­come to the Haiti Asy­lum Infor­ma­tion Project (HAIP), built and main­tained by IJDH with the gen­er­ous sup­port of the Firedoll Foun­da­tion. HAIP is intended as a resource for asy­lum appli­cants and their lawyers. It is not intended as a sub­sti­tute for legal advice, and we rec­om­mend that all asy­lum appli­cants seek legal assis­tance with their applications.

See Recent Country Conditions Evidence and Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Haiti: Key Developments.

See detailed information in the two above items. Here too are recent articles and reports on Haiti conditions. See too the preceding “Human Rights and Rule of Law in Haiti: Key Recent Developments,” Current Protest Movements, Past News Updates, and HAIP Articles.

“Firm resettlement” may be an issue in the asylum or TPS context.  If your client spent time in Brazil or Chile, for example, see pages 44-52 of this report and these Brazil and Chile compilations re the extremely difficult conditions of joblessness and racism Haitians faced there, later versions of which compilations may be available from the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies.

In addition to the information compiled by IJDH located on this page, other pertinent information and expertise regarding Haiti may be acquired from the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS), Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other sources below.

Haiti Asylum Claims Webinar: March 30, 2017
Coun­try Con­di­tions Infor­ma­tion: Human rights reports and subsections on: political conditions/violence, land disputes, elections, press freedom, gender-based violence, children’s rights, prison conditions, housing rights, etc.
Haitian Women and Gender-Based Violence: Get expert research and advice; model affidavits and human rights reports.
“Haiti at a Crossroads–An Analysis of the Drivers Behind Haiti’s Political Crisis,” BAI/IJDH, May 17, 2019.
“As tensions continue to escalate in Haiti over president, journalists come under attack” by Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, June 12, 2019.

Model Expert Affidavits (2017):

Victim of Domestic Violence Seeking Asylum
Victim of Domestic Violence Seeking Asylum, Restavek
Haiti Land Disputes Memo, March 27, 2017
Expert declaration on Land Disputes by Brian Concannon, February 27, 2017
Experts Ros­ter: Names, con­tact infor­ma­tion and qual­i­fi­ca­tions for rec­og­nized experts on Haiti.
Legal briefs/memos on firm resettlement

Subsections  

(See also subsections under country conditions information)

Polit­i­cal Conditions/Vio­lence: Includ­ing cases and back­ground on polit­i­cal vio­lence in Haiti.
Election-Related Information: News reports, legal analysis and formal reports on Haiti’s elections.
Sex­ual Minori­ties and HIV/AIDS: Includ­ing spe­cific coun­try con­di­tion, cases and law arti­cles.
Detention and deportation of noncriminal Haitians arriving from Mexico: News reports on US immigration policy and deportations.
Crim­i­nal Depor­tees: Includ­ing case law and legal analy­ses of U.S. and inter­na­tional law, reports on prison con­di­tions and treat­ment of depor­tees, and news reports of depor­ta­tion issues.
Model Affidavits: Previous model expert affi­davits, the Omnibus Motion to Stop Hait­ian Depor­ta­tions
Haiti Asy­lum Case Law: Hait­ian asy­lum cases, includ­ing sum­maries of the main issues and the hold­ings for each.
U.S. Immi­gra­tion Pol­icy on Haitian Migrants: May 2011 report by the Con­gres­sional Research Service.

Important Links

Alter­na­tive Chance: Advo­cacy for Crim­i­nal Depor­tees in Haiti
American Immigration Council
Amer­i­can Immi­gra­tion Lawyers’ Asso­ci­a­tion
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Boston Col­lege Law School’s Post-Deportation Human Rights Project
Brooklyn Defender Services
Center for Constitutional Rights
Cen­ter for Gen­der and Refugee Stud­ies at UC Hast­ings Col­lege of Law
Extreme Envi­ron­men­tal Events and Hait­ian Refugees (Amer­i­can Uni­ver­sity)
Fahamu Refugee Programme
Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miami — Haitian Women of Miami
Greater Boston Legal Ser­vices
Institute for the Study of International Migration
Migration Policy Institute
National Immigration Law Center
National Immi­gra­tion Project’s Immigrant’s Rights Resources
Americans for Immigrant Justice
The Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR)
University of Minnesota Center for New Americans

If you find this site use­ful, we do request that you con­sider mak­ing a tax-deductible dona­tion to IJDH, to defray the costs of main­tain­ing HAIP, but also to sup­port IJDH’s work to reduce the injus­tice in Haiti that gen­er­ates refugees.

If there are any mate­ri­als that should be on the site and are not, let us know. Please send us any deci­sions, sam­ple affi­davits or other mate­ri­als that would be use­ful to site users. We can be reached at info@ijdh.org, or by tele­phone at (857) 201-0991.