‘It was endless hunger. We saw a lot of people die and walked days through jungle'

Haitians recount their deadly journey to reach the US

- RICHARD HALL

For many Americans, the first sign of the crisis was the appearance of a large encampment of migrants under a bridge in the city of Del Rio, Texas. Accompanying images of border patrol agents on horseback corralling desperate people as they tried to cross the Rio Grande was seized upon as a symbol of a failed immigration policy.

But to those unlucky enough to be in the camp, the crisis began years before, many thousands of miles away. The crisis was not here, but in the country they left behind, and on the perilous road that brought them here.

“It was endless hunger,” says Andre, a 24-year-old Haitian who travelled for a month and a half to reach Del Rio with his wife and infant daughter. “We saw a lot of people die. We walked for days through the jungle.”

Andre’s journey was typical of the roughly 15,000 Haitians who arrived at the US-Mexico border last week. Their stories tell of a determination to reach America despite the overwhelming risk, and suggest that no amount of deterrence at the border will stop more from taking the journey.

Speaking to The Independent at a migrant transfer centre in Houston with his wife and child, Andre, who gave only his first name, recounts his harrowing journey to America, and a new life.

Most of the Haitians who were stranded under the bridge in Del Rio did not come directly from Haiti, but from countries in South and Central America, places to which they had fled from their home country years earlier. Many believed the chances of them being allowed to enter America had improved when Joe Biden became president – others simply could not afford to live in their temporary home any longer.