Government of Canada expands assisted departures from Haiti

April 1, 2024 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

As the security situation in Haiti remains extremely volatile, and the Port-au-Prince airport remains closed, the Government of Canada continues to take action to protect the safety and security of Canadians in Haiti.

Canada’s assisted departure operation from Haiti to the Dominican Republic is now complete and successfully assisted 153 Canadians to leave Haiti. Canada is grateful for the support of the authorities in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic, who have helped to reunite Canadian citizens with their families.

Starting as early as Wednesday of this week, if security and weather conditions allow, Canada is expanding assisted departure operations from Port-au-Prince to Canada to include Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada and their immediate eligible family members who wish to leave Haiti.

These assisted departure operations will bring Canadian citizens, permanent residents and eligible family members from Port-au-Prince to a secondary safe location and then onward to Montreal via a chartered plane. Eligible family members include the spouse or common law partner of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and dependent children as defined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). In line with previous assisted departures, the chartered flights to Canada will be at the traveller’s own expense, priced consistently with the average cost of similar commercial flights.  Financial assistance, in the form of private funds transfers and emergency loans, is available to those in need. 

In recent weeks, approximately 500 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and immediate family members have reached out to Global Affairs Canada (GAC) to express interest in getting assistance to leave Haiti.

As of today, there are close to 3,110 Canadians in Haiti registered with GAC’s Registration of Canadians Abroad service.

Canada urges all Canadians in Haiti to check the Travel advice and advisories by destination as often as possible for updates.

Canada’s officials in Ottawa and at missions in Haiti and the Dominican Republic are working tirelessly to help Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate eligible family members leave to safety. Canada has deployed GAC’s Standing Rapid Deployment Team (SRDT) to the region to support its operations and provide emergency response, coordination, consular assistance and logistical support. The SRDT is composed of highly trained employees who are ready to deploy on short notice to support Canada’s response to emergencies.

Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada and their immediate eligible family members wishing to leave Haiti should:

• apply for a travel document as soon as possible, if they do not currently have valid documents
• sign up with the Government of Canada’s Registration of Canadians Abroad service, to receive important information about available assistance
• contact GAC’s 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre:
  • by calling: +1 613-996-8885 (collect calls are accepted where available) 
  • by text message at: +1 613-686-3658   
  • via WhatsApp at: +1 613-909-8881   
  • via Telegram at: Canada Emergency Abroad   
  • via Signal at: +1-613-909-8087  
  • Email: haitisos@international.gc.ca