Imagine leaving your home behind because the only option for your family is starvation. This is the reality of Benson and many other Haitians, who left the country due to the economic and socio-political crisis.
Nothing stopped him; he felt desperate and needed to provide for his family. Benson put himself at sea, on a rickety boat that never made it to the dreamed destination. They ended stranded in the middle of the ocean with no fuel.
He was sent back to Cuba and then to Haiti. Confused after a long ordeal, he needed support and guidance to get home safely. Thanks to EU funding, he received assistance from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to find his way back.
Haitians kept fleeing their island nation even at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the main borders were closed, they did so through informal routes. They had to put their own lives in peril, often ending up as undocumented migrants on foreign soil risking deportation.
Since 2019, the EU financed IOM to support Haitian migrants and deportees with €7.85 million in humanitarian funding.
More than 1.2 million Haitians migrants scattered across the world – mainly in the United States of America, Canada, France, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.
Story by Daniele Pagani, Regional Information Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.
Labadie is a small Caribbean gem on Haiti’s coast. Before COVID-19, cruise ships used to dock here to show its beauty to tourists. Fishing and visitors were some sort of lifeline to locals. Due to the pandemic, most people now struggle to make ends meet. 
A recent wave of violence in the capital forced at least 19,000 Haitians to migrate. In proportion to the population, the Haitian diaspora is one of the largest in the world, with more than an estimated 1.2 million people living abroad. 
Besides the difficult economic and political situation, Haiti is facing a severe food crisis. Almost half of its population (4.4 million people) need aid. In 2021, the EU released €14 million funding for Haiti and €3 million after the August’s earthquake. 
32-year old Benson Berard is from Labadie, where he lived in a small house with his partner and daughter. In June 2020, with no money to support them, he left to try to find work elsewhere. He knew it was not easy, but the alternative was starvation. 
Benson hopped on a rickety boat, but it was too small for the journey and ran out of fuel. Since June 2020, more than 3,500 Haitians have been forcibly repatriated. In 2021, repatriations accelerated, mainly from United States, Bahamas & Turks & Caicos. 
“We have been adrift in the ocean for 13 days, with little food or water, this shouldn't happen to anyone,” says Benson. The Cuban coast guard found them and brought them to Cuba to a centre for migrants. Benson recalls his only desire was to return home. 
After 2 months, the governments of Cuba and Haiti repatriated Benson through a direct flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, where he had no connections to help him. “I had never been there,” says Benson. “I was not sure about how to get home.” 
Thanks to EU funding and local networks, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Haiti receives information on the arrival of deportees. Most migrants have no money and do not know their rights. IOM staff provides them guidance and support. 
Benson received aid, legal support and €80 to reach Labadie. “Our assistance is the first received in a long time, otherwise many migrants could probably not return home,” says the Chief of IOM Haiti. In 2020-21, the EU funded IOM Haiti with €7.1 million.