By admin 
Boats arriving from Haiti’s seaports will soon be required to operate under enhanced security measures or risk being denied entry into the United States.
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The requirement is being imposed by the U.S. Coast Guard, which has filed a notice in the Federal Register outlining its intentions to place conditions of entry on vessels arriving from Haiti beginning June 22. The measures, the notice said, ”are intended to protect the United States from vessels arriving from foreign ports or places that have been found to have ineffective antiterrorism measures.
“Vessels calling on ports in Haiti must increase their security posture while in port, document their efforts, and be prepared to present this evidence to the U.S. Coast Guard,” an agency spokesperson told the Miami Herald. “Failure to comply may result in denial of entry into U.S. waters.”
Haitian officials were first warned in the fall that their seaports lack adequate safeguards. They were given 90 days to address the deficiencies or face potential sanctions. In a letter to the Haitian government, the Coast Guard said it had determined that Haiti is not “substantially implementing the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code,” ISPS, at either its port facilities or on a national level, and had failed to establish “effective security measures.”
If improvements are not made, officials were told, vessels calling on Haiti’s ports would need to adopt enhanced security protocols as outlined by the code. Those measures include guards stationed at access points with full visibility of the exterior and detailed logs of security activities while in port and at sea. In practical terms, according to a person familiar with the discussions surrounding the new requirement, ships may need to use armed security teams on board or equipment designed to prevent hijackings, kidnappings or robberies.
Jean Evens Charles, the director general of the Haitian National Port Authority, said measures had been taken to better secure the port areas but “we can’t provide security on all the ocean.
“We are limited, and we don’t have resources for all that,” he said, adding Haiti faces an immense security challenge in which armed groups have lodged themselves on the waterways and up and down the coastline. Still, he said, the government has provided instructions to boat captains and implemented safety measures that have not always been followed.
Haiti’s vulnerable ports
As Haiti’s armed gangs have expanded and become more powerful, concerns about the security of the country’s seaports have grown. Like the main highways leading out of the capital, the ports have become increasingly vulnerable to gang activity and trafficking networks as gangs seek to expand their influence over critical infrastructure and key transportation routes.
Many of the country’s seaports, according to one of many reports by , are in “a derelict state,” and operate with little state oversight, including police presence. Combined with the country’s porous land border with the Dominican Republic, the deteriorating conditions have helped transform Haiti into a regional transit hub for drug trafficking, the report found.
“The country’s major seaports, border crossings and airports have a modest police and customs presence and virtually no air, sea or land surveillance capabilities,” the U.N. report said.
The ports, like the main roadways, have become strategic targets for armed gangs, which generate millions of dollars through extortion schemes imposed on truck drivers moving goods in and out of the ports. Foreign crew members have also become targets of kidnapping. On May 1, two seafarers, one Turkish and one Russian, were abducted at gunpoint after masked gunmen boarded a Panama flagged ship anchored inside the government-owned port in Port-au-Prince.
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Charles, who declined to go into details about the incident, hinted that it was an instance in which the port’s safety protocols were not followed.
“Haitian and international authorities are preoccupied with how gangs have expanded their influence over access points to critical infrastructure and public facilities,” the U.N. agency said. Gang federations such as the G9, for example, has blockaded access to ports and restricted access to gasoline and diesel supplies, while other groups, including the 5 Segonn gang, have periodically blocked access to the private Port Lafito.
These concerns led the U.N. Security Council to approve the deployment of a Kenya-led multinational security support mission, and then the recent Gang Suppression Force. The latter is supposed to help secure the ports as part of its mandate, but so far the contingents, which only began patrolling the streets of the capital last week, have not deployed to the port areas.
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A nation heavily dependent on imports, Haiti receives much of its container traffic primarily from major South Florida ports, including Miami-Dade and Port Everglades. However, amid the worsening violence and frequent attacks at the ports, a number of shipping lines have ceased calling directly on Port-au-Prince and instead route cargo through regional hubs such as Jamaica before transferring to smaller feeder vessels.
For the few lines that still serve the country, the new measures could add costs, industry officials say, particularly if insurers raise premiums in response to the new Coast Guard requirements. Those costs can filter down to consumers, said economist Kesner Pharel, noting that they are already bearing the burden of rising costs of goods due to the gang crisis, which has Haiti staring down its eighth straight year of negative economic growth.
The supply chain issues and inflation have led to a potential 30% inflation rate when this budget year ends in September, Pharel said.
Haiti already losing millions
The latest measure come as Haiti is already losing millions of dollars annually from lost airlines landing fees and passenger taxes, after U.S. commercial carriers and other foreign airlines suspended service to the country’s main international airport amid ongoing aviation bans over gang gunfire hitting aircraft.
The Coast Guard said its decision stems from the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, which requires the federal agency to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-terrorism measures in commercial shipping ports.
“When ports are found to have inadequate security, the [Act] authorizes the Coast Guard to impose conditions of entry on vessels arriving from those locations to protect the United States,” the Coast Guard spokesperson said. ”It provides an additional security measure to protect the United States while Haiti works to improve their port security. It reflects our shared interest in safe and secure maritime commerce.”
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