By Sarah Morland
Aug 28 (Reuters) - Nearly 200,000 people were forcibly returned to Haiti in the first eight months of this year, a U.N. official told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday, days after a brutal gang attack killed nearly 50 people near the capital.
The forced return represents at least 20,000 more people than in the same period last year, Indrika Ratwatte, the acting assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the meeting.
Sunday night's attack took place days after Haiti received its first U.S. deportation flight since the Trump administration won a legal battle ending Temporary Protected Status for around 350,000 Haitians. On Thursday, another flight arrived with migrants from the U.S. and the Bahamas.
Haitian security analysts have meanwhile warned that the flood of illegal arms entering the country is worsening the conflict that has claimed more than 21,000 lives since 2022.
The U.N. estimates most guns in Haiti originate from the southeastern United States, though many are trafficked into the country through the land border with the Dominican Republic.
Ratwatte briefed the Security Council alongside Carlos Ruiz, the head of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), who warned that without improved security, efforts to advance preparations for the country's first elections in a decade remain "severely constrained and vulnerable to setbacks."
Ruiz said three boys and two girls were among the 47 people killed in the hillside community of Kenscoff near the capital Port-au-Prince on Sunday, where houses were set on fire and people who sought to escape were attacked inside a church.
"This latest heartbreaking episode is a stark reminder of the urgent need to further strengthen international security support for Haiti," Ruiz said.
U.N.-BACKED FORCE'S MANDATE NEARS END
Diplomats argued the attack showed the need to more rapidly scale up the deployment of the U.N.-backed multinational force mandated to help police fight gangs that have massively expanded their influence over the last five years.
Haitian authorities first requested foreign military assistance in 2022, but this was slow to materialize, and a year ago the U.N. mandated a different, larger and more aggressive force to deploy, called the Gang Suppression Force (GSF).
The GSF aims to reach a capacity of 5,500 troops by fall this year. The Security Council will vote on whether to renew its mandate at the end of September.
U.S. representative Jennifer Locetta called on the Security Council to renew the mandate.
"The GSF was not created to issue statements from within a compound wall or spend our money while Haiti suffers," she said, adding if more countries bring material support to the force, it could help police fight gangs more efficiently.
"This attack is precisely why the U.N. authorized Gang Suppression Force's mission and mandate matters," she said.
A representative for the Haitian government said Chad, Mongolia and Ivory Coast had agreed to support the force and work was under way for similar agreements with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Jamaica and Guatemala. The latter two countries had already deployed personnel under a prior iteration of the force.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland; Editing by Iñigo Alexander and Rod Nickel)
