WORLD NEWS APRIL 7, 2020 / 6:56 PM / UPDATED 25 MINUTES AGO

United States deports Haitians despite coronavirus fears

Andre Paultre, Robenson Sanon
3 MIN READ

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The United States, the new epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic, deported 61 Haitian migrants on Tuesday despite fears of further spreading the deadly disease in the poorest country in the Americas.

Some U.S. lawmakers, immigration advocates and Haitian human rights activists said it was irresponsible for the United States to continue deportations to Haiti, which is ill-equipped to contain any outbreak of disease due to inadequate sanitation infrastructure and healthcare services.

The densely populated country last month closed its borders after detecting its first two cases of the novel coronavirus, which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19, a tally that has since risen to 25 compared to more than 380,000 in the United States.

None of the deportees on Tuesday had any symptoms before boarding the flight, although they had not been tested for the virus and could be asymptomatic, Haiti’s foreign minister, Claude Joseph, told a virtual news conference.

Three migrants whom the United States deported on a March 26 flight to Guatemala and who arrived without virus symptoms have since been hospitalized after testing positive.

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