The Biden administration plans to charter at least one evacuation flight out of Haiti, but only for stranded Americans who can reach the exfiltration point at their own risk, the State Department announced Saturday.
The State Department is “arranging a charter flight for U.S. citizens” to escape Haiti, which has descended into chaos as criminal gangs fight in the streets for control of the Caribbean nation, the agency announced. Because the airport in Port-au-Prince — the Haitian capital, the largest city in the country and scene of the worst fighting — has been shut down, the State Department is planning to fly Americans out of Cap-Haitien, but only if stranded Americans are able to get to Cap-Haitien in time on their own.
“Travel to Cap-Haitien is conducted at your own risk,” the State Department wrote in a Saturday post to X. “The overland trip from Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haitien is dangerous,” the agency wrote in a release announcing the plan.
Haiti: We are arranging a charter flight for U.S. citizens with valid U.S. passports from Cap-Haitien to the U.S. Travel to Cap-Haitien is conducted at your own risk. If you are interested in this flight, fill out our intake form (https://t.co/bRo87JkOsI). https://t.co/qzBjoYDrM8 pic.twitter.com/ItUfaVaeAD
— Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) March 16, 2024
The flight will only allow American citizens with valid U.S. passports to board, and prospective evacuees must fill out a form and wait for additional information from the State Department as to how to proceed, the agency said. People who do ultimately take the flight will have to “sign a promissory note agreeing to reimburse the U.S. government for the cost of the flight,” according to the State Department.
Cap-Haitien is located on the other side of the island from Port-au-Prince, with approximately 125 miles and five or more hours of driving separating the two locations, according to Google Maps. It is unclear how many Americans remain trapped in Haiti or what part of the country they are in.
The agency said that the evacuation plan will be carried out “assuming the security situation in Cap-Haitien remains stable,” but added that “the security situation in Haiti is unpredictable and dangerous.” The State Department said that it is working on evacuation solutions out of Port-au-Prince, asserting that it will notify Americans of those plans “as soon as we are able to safely and securely arrange them.”
“Our embassies overseas compile rough estimates of U.S. citizens in their countries for contingency planning purposes, but these estimates can vary and are constantly changing,” a State Department spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “U.S. citizens are not required to register their travel to a foreign country with us, so we cannot track with fidelity how many U.S. citizens are in any particular country.”
It is unclear if the agency has specific contingency plans in place to respond to any outcome in which the facilities at Cap-Haitien are rendered unusable for evacuation flights.
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Nick Pope on March 16, 2024
