Scores of foreigners are stranded in Haiti, unable to leave the country under siege by violent gangs that have shuttered its international airports, trapping citizens from the United States, Canada and beyond.
Richard Phillips, a 65-year-old man from the Canadian capital, Ottawa, packs his suitcase in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, March 8, 2024. Dozens of foreigners, including many from the U.S. and Canada, are stranded in Haiti, desperately trying to leave the violence-torn country where anti-government gangs are battling police and have already shut down both of the country's international airports. They were in Haiti for reasons ranging from adoptions to missionary and humanitarian work.
“We are actually quite concerned about where this is going,” he told The Associated Press by phone. “If the police force collapses, there’s going to be anarchy in the streets, and we might be here a month or more.”prime minister has been unable to return home Yvonne Trimble, who has lived in Haiti for more than 40 years, is among the U.S. expats who can't leave.
Trimble noted how a mob surrounded the airport in Cap-Haitien recently and began throwing rocks and bottles following a rumor that the prime minister was going to land. “We’re getting phone calls constantly,” he said. “The big concern is that every time people see an airplane, they think the prime minister is coming back to the country, and there’s a large segment of the society that doesn’t want that to happen. So we don’t want to be the first ones in.”“This is difficult for us,” Sands said. “We hate seeing our planes on the ground when there’s need.”
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