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Migrant Returns and Reception Assistance in Haiti | Air and Sea | Brief: Post-Arrival Survey 19 September - 31 December 2021

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Haiti
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IOM
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OVERVIEW

In 2021, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Haiti provided reception and post-arrival assistance to 19,629 adult and child migrants repatriated to Haiti by both air and sea to Portau-Prince and Cap-Haïtien (see here for more details). The vast majority - 76 per cent - were returned by flight from the United States, while smaller proportions were returned by other countries and territories in the region, mainly the Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico and the Turks and Caicos Islands. A small number of migrants were returned after being intercepted at sea by the Coast Guard.
Most returns by air and sea that took place in 2021 - 84 per cent - occurred between the months of September through December 2021, with the largest waves arriving from 19 September onward.

Most returned migrants assisted by IOM in 2021 were previously residing in Chile or Brazil - where several child returnees were born - and were returned by the United States after journeying northward. Smaller proportions of returnees migrated from Haiti more recently, mainly to locations in the Caribbean. Those departing recently reported leaving due to a combination of factors, including lack of income and job opportunities, insufficient access to basic services, the impact of natural disasters (including the earthquake of 14 August 2021, which strongly impacted Haiti’s southern departments), violence and insecurity, political instability and more.

Many returning migrants, which include individuals with chronic illnesses and disabilities, pregnant and nursing women and young children, arrive to Haiti in highly vulnerable situations with few if any resources. Returnees are often in immediate need of humanitarian assistance, having faced a series of health and protection concerns during their migration journeys. Information from arrival surveys conducted with returnees at points-of-entry in Haiti indicate that the vast majority of recent adult returnees intend to migrate again.

To inform the design, implementation and improvement of future programming, IOM conducted a post-arrival phone survey with adult migrants recently returned by air and sea (not including returnees from the Dominican Republic) in order to: (1) assess their satisfaction with services received upon arrival; (2) identify current needs; (3) inquire about future migration plans; and (4) understand returnees’ livelihoods profiles, for socioeconomic reintegration. This brief presents indicator-level findings as well as statistical analysis involving relationship testing between key individual demographic / social characteristics and various indicators of interest.

The survey, collected from late January through early February 2022, targeted adult migrants returned to Haiti and assisted by IOM between 19 September - 31 December 2021, estimated at a total of 13,351 adult returnees in this period (76% repatriated from the United States; 24% from other countries and territories; 71% male; 29% female). A total of 383 surveys were collected, based on a simple random sampling methodology.

Given that IOM only possessed phone numbers for approximately half of returnees arriving in this period, results are only generalizable to recent adult returnees arriving from 19 September - 31 December for whom IOM possessed a phone number and who had not already departed from Haiti, while they are indicative of the entire adult returnee population in this period that were still in Haiti at the time of data collection.