US President Joe Bien is facing a backlash among progressive voters and organisations in America over his administration’s treatment of Haitian asylum seekers.

Around 4,600 Haitians have been removed from the United States on repatriation flights from Texas to Haiti since September 19, reports say.

The Biden administration has relied on Trump-era health regulations to quickly remove the Haitian migrants who have gathered at the US-Mexico border over the past few months.

Many camped under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas

The US Department of Homeland Security has been conducting regular removal flights to Haiti. Since September 19, it has conducted 43 repatriation flights from Del Rio, Texas, to Haiti

Thousands of migrants – mostly Haitians – had converged at the camp last month, hoping to get processed by US immigration authorities.

The US Department of Homeland Security has been conducting regular removal flights to Haiti. Since September 19, it has conducted 43 repatriation flights from Del Rio, Texas, to Haiti

It has now cleared out the camp. Some migrants were moved to US Customs and Border Protection processing centres, several thousand were released into the US and others were flown back to Haiti.

Many of the Haitians who camped at Del Rio were believed to have been living in South America since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, but fled as jobs dried up in the region.

US human rights activist and lawyer Kerry Kennedy says US foreign policy has had a devastating effect on Haitians over decades.

“What I witnessed in Del Rio is yet one more extension of decades of racist U.S. policy. Vulnerable migrant families, mainly Haitian asylum seekers, remain trapped in situations without access to critically needed humanitarian relief and legal aid,” Ms Kennedy said.

“In acts of courage and pure desperation, Haitians made the dangerous journey to our border with Mexico, fleeing a devastating combination of natural disasters and political instability,” she said.

“They are seeking the protection they are entitled to as asylum seekers under U.S. and international law—and yet have been subjected to unspeakable violence and discrimination at every step of the way.

“Most shamefully, they have suffered horrific acts of racism at the hands of US border agents, including assaults by Border Patrol agents on horseback. One could not help but think about the dogs and hoses unleashed on civil rights protestors in the South in the 1960s.

“The Biden administration must act now to end these atrocities at our border and live up to the values they profess, starting by immediately halting all deportations to Haiti, which is still reeling from a presidential assassination, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and another in a series of powerful tropical storms.

“The mass expulsions of Haitians and other Black asylum seekers and refugees violate the prohibition against non-refoulement—a principle of international and U.S. refugee law that prohibits any form of return where an individual’s safety or freedom remains at imminent risk,” Ms Kennedy said.