HAITIAN CRIMINAL DEPORTEES (PART TWO):

C O N F I D E N T I A L PORT AU PRINCE 000348 STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR S/CRS SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD INR/IAA WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/27/2014 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM HA SUBJECT: HAITIAN CRIMINAL DEPORTEES (PART TWO): REINTEGRATION PROGRAM ¶1. (SBU) Summary. The International Office for Migration (IOM) administers the only reintegration program for deportees in Haiti, a program partially funded by the USG. Current funding levels cover only one-quarter of the total number of annual Haitian deportees. Criminal deportees claim that IOM's program is unresponsive to the needs of assistance recipients and that local employees are corrupt. This cable is the second of three in a series covering criminal deportees in Haiti. End Summary. THE PROGRAM - A SYNOPSIS -------------- ¶2. (U) Many deportees arrive in Haiti after years -- and in some cases, decades -- living in the U.S. with little knowledge of the country that is nominally theirs. IOM's pilot reintegration program offers cultural orientation classes and micro-enterprise training grants designed to help newly-arrived deportees -- both criminal and non-criminal -- adjust to life in Haiti. Cultural orientation sessions provide information about Haitian laws, local traditions and customs, finding employment, hygiene and health protection, and ways to counter discrimination. The sessions also offer language training in French or Haitian Creole. Micro-enterprise programs provide classes where criminal deportees can learn to develop a small business plan and submit their completed proposals to IOM for grant approval or refusal. IOM does not provide funds to assist deportees with living expenses such as food or shelter. ¶3. (U) From May 2007 to March 2008, IOM registered 1011 deportee participants and provided them with orientation training. Of these, 683 individuals also participated in micro-enterprise training and received small grants: 650 formed small groups and applied as joint ventures, while 33 applied for individual grants. Two hundred ninety-eight additional persons applied for micro-enterprise training only, which was subcontracted to another NGO during the first phase. From March 2008 to February 2009 (deportations to Haiti were temporarily suspended beginning September 12),IOM registered an additional 500 persons. Of those, 120 received introductory cultural orientation. Two hundred five received training in micro-enterprise set-up and another 228 received funding for micro-enterprise projects. Twenty more are ''in the pipeline'' for this support. IOM has monitored twenty-three micro-enterprise projects during the latter period. ¶4. (U) USG funds pay for the small business training and grants but not the cultural orientation classes. IOM allocates USD 250 for small enterprise training and up to USD 2500 per individual for small business projects. Examples of IOM-approved micro-enterprise grants include money for setting up small food vending stands, running a taxi, rearing livestock, and vending phone cards. ¶5. (U) IOM's Program Officer told Poloff on February 10 that they are often required to help criminal deportees negotiate the GOH's slow-moving bureaucracy. IOM reports that deportees often cannot obtain national identity cards for nearly a full year. US-based NGOs have reported that deportees (presumably those who already have a national ID) must wait eight months before applying for a passport (see Part Three). Lack of civil documents hinders criminal deportee access to simple procedures such as opening bank accounts or signing leases. ¶6. (U) IOM works with representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior, and numerous other government agencies. IOM reports that Haiti's migration authority, the National Migration Office (ONM),collaborated with them at the program's inception but has become increasingly non-participatory. ONM currently provides only the initial welcome and contact info for IOM, logs deportee names into a reception book and upon IOM's request, reports the length of time a deportee is held before initial release. No private organization or NGO monitors initial detention periods or holding cell conditions. The IOM representative believes that the Haitian National Police (HNP) (which is responsible for prisons and holding facilities) wants deportees to be released quickly due to lack of space and funds to feed detainees. DEPORTEES AND IOM -------------- ¶7. (C) Some criminal deportees criticize the program's failure to assist them with basic amenities such as food or lodging, and suspect that local IOM employees are corrupt and do not understand the program's assistance parameters. Deportees expressed to Poloff on two occasions (See Part Three) the belief that IOM's local employees sneak non-deportee friends into the micro-enterprise classes. They also complain about participating in micro-enterprise classes in Haitian Creole before they have mastered the language. They report slow IOM responses to requests to enroll in both aspects of the program and to receive funds after completing micro-enterprise classes. They acknowledge that homeless deportees ask IOM for housing assistance out of desperation when they have exhausted other options. Although IOM does not provide this kind of assistance, some deportees use the micro-enterprise funds to pay for housing because they would otherwise be forced into the streets. ¶8. (C) IOM's Program Officer reports that they have encountered difficulties with the criminal deportee community in implementing their programs. Many, she stated, are not serious about the micro-enterprise training and ''just want the money.'' The program office has also had problems with aggressive behavior by criminal deportees and increased security after one deportee appeared with a gun to demand that his grant be disbursed immediately. ¶9. (C) The IOM representative admitted to Poloff that IOM needs stronger identity verification procedures for program participants. The USG, she reports, provides IOM with only the passenger manifests of the government-chartered deportee flights. IOM has no way to check faces against names. IOM requires that deportees have GOH-issued deportation papers to participate in the reintegration program, but believes it's possible that non-qualified persons sometimes use easily-obtainable fake documents to enroll in the classes and possibly obtain grants. ¶10. (U) Comment: Embassy believes four steps may strengthen the program's effectiveness. IOM should 1.) provide the deportee community with better information about what IOM is mandated to provide, 2.) conduct micro-enterprise training in English. The USG should 1.) increase funding for the program to cover more deportees (alternately, IOM should select program participants more carefully),and 2.) collect biometric data on criminal deportees and share it with IOM so that they can better verify the identities of program enrollees and discourage fraud. These shortcomings notwithstanding, IOM's program remains the only available assistance option for deportees returning to Haiti and it continues to be a critical resource. End Comment. SANDERSON