Maersk, one of the world's largest container shipping lines, notified clients on Thursday that "recent social unrest in Haiti" has sparked disruptions at a key port in the failed Caribbean nation, prompting the shipper to suspend all new bookings immediately.
"In the wake of the recent social unrest in Haiti, which is preventing normal operations at the terminal, it has been decided, effective immediately, to stop any new bookings from and to Haiti to prevent the accumulation of boxes at the transshipment terminals," Maersk said.
One day earlier, Reuters reported land access to the main container terminal in Port-au-Prince, called Caribbean Port Services, a privately owned and operated company that handles the majority of the container volume in the country, was closed off due to a surge in attacks by armed gangs.
"CPS will shut its barriers to all types of land-based traffic from Sept. 26 to Sept. 29," CPS wrote in a statement, indicating this time will allow the military troops and national police to secure the terminal.
This is insane. More from Reuters...
A shipping official told Reuters this week that ships were being shot at, preventing them from docking and unloading containers, while authorities have reported the kidnapping of two Filipino crew members from a cargo vessel in the port.
Senseless gang violence has led to the deaths of 3,661 people in the collapsed Caribbean nation in the first half of the year.
"This situation is not just a humanitarian emergency but it is a threat to the stability of our nation," Haiti's transition council president Edgard Leblanc Fils told the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, adding, "It's never too late to act."
The number of people internally displaced by gang violence has jumped to more than 700,000, while 1.6 million face food and housing insecurities.
Earlier this year, Haiti's main container port and international airport were shut down for three months following an eruption in violence. The chaos included a massive jailbreak, allowing thousands of prisoners to escape.
Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has been flooding small town USA with Haitians, as seen in Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania. There are reports some of these Haitians are being trafficked domestically in labor mule schemes by staffing companies.
What a mess the West is in.
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