Haitians returning to a homeland that’s far from welcoming | See Pics

At least 2,853 Haitians deported from Texas have landed in Port-au-Prince in the last week with $15-$100 in cash handouts and a “good luck out there” from migration officials -- many setting foot in the country for the first time in years, even decades.

Deported from the United States, Pierre Charles landed a week ago in Port-au-Prince, a capital more dangerous and dystopian than the one he’d left four years before. Unable to reach his family, he left the airport alone, on foot.

Charles was unsure how to make his way to the Carrefour neighborhood through a city shrouded in smoke and dust, often tolling with gunfire from gangs and police. On the airport road, the 39-year-old laborer tried unsuccessfully to flag down packed buses. He asked motorcycle drivers to take him but was told again and again that the trip was too risky.