SANTIAGO, Chile – Thousands of Haitians in recent months have boarded charter flights to South America, according to flight tracking information and independent verification by The Associated Press in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley.
The AP and Berkeley partnered to look at the infrastructure of Haitian migration to Latin America that has reached the U.S.-Mexico border at record levels amid worsening conditions in Haiti.
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The reporting found a thriving, little-known shadow industry that is exploiting the U.S. government’s decision to send people back to a country besieged by violence.
Haitians are a lucrative market not only for the illegal, underground enterprises of migrant smugglers, but for legal, registered businesses such as travel agencies and low-budget airlines.