The Taiwanese embassy in Haiti has no immediate plan to evacuate Taiwanese from the Caribbean ally, but it has contingencies prepared in case evacuation becomes necessary amid escalating violence in the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry released the statement in response to media inquiries whether Taiwan plans to evacuate diplomatic staff and citizens in Haiti after the US, Germany and the EU decided to do so after the latest incidents last week.
Violence broke out late last month while Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was visiting Kenya to advocate for the deployment of a UN-backed police force to combat Haitian gangs.
Photo: AFP
Since then, criminal gangs have taken control of much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and attacked key infrastructure, including two prisons where most of its 3,800 inmates escaped.
The Taiwanese embassy in Haiti remains open, and 24 Taiwanese in Haiti — comprising embassy staff, technical mission members, businesspeople and their families — are safe, the ministry said.
Given the ongoing chaos in Haiti, it would be safer for Taiwanese to stay where they are for now instead of fleeing to other places, it said.
Other than the US airlifting nonessential embassy personnel from Haiti and the evacuation of the German ambassador and EU diplomatic staff, other countries with embassies in Haiti currently do not have immediate evacuation plans, it said.
The Taiwanese embassy in Haiti has since 2021 beefed up security, hiring more private guards and installing more advanced security systems to protect diplomatic staff, it added.
Contingencies are ready in case a decision is made to evacuate citizens from Haiti, it said without elaborating.
Haiti declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew last week in response to a deadly surge of gang violence overwhelming its capital, beginning on Feb. 29.
The ongoing unrest was confined to the center of Port-au-Prince and the city’s airport in neighboring the Tabarre commune, about 10km from the Taiwanese embassy, the ministry said.
As the embassy is in the suburban Port-au-Prince commune of Petion-Ville, it has been largely unaffected by the unrest, it said.
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