(Santo Domingo) The Dominican Republic announced Tuesday that it had expelled or repatriated nearly 11,000 Haitians home over the past week, keeping its promise to do so every week, while its neighbor Haiti, already struggling with violence gangs and poverty, is struggling to manage this sudden influx.
The Dominican government announced last week that it would expel up to 10,000 Haitians per week, citing a “surplus” of immigrants, as relations between the two countries that share the island of Hispaniola continue to deteriorate . These are the largest expulsions of this type in the recent history of the Dominican Republic.
The announcement prompted Haitian officials to request an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS). Haiti’s permanent representative, Gandy Thomas, called the expulsions a “strategy of ethnic cleansing” and a “discriminatory campaign against Haitians because of their nationality and the color of their skin.”
Mr Thomas called for dialogue and a “respectful solution”, saying these evictions “will worsen the fragility of our infrastructure while those expelled will arrive without support, without resources and without links to their community”.
At least half a million Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, according to human rights groups. Activists say the evictions put the lives of thousands at risk.
A United Nations-backed mission led by Kenyan police, which began operations earlier this year to try to quell gang violence, is facing a shortage of funding and personnel.
PHOTO JEAN FEGUENS REGALA, REUTERS ARCHIVES
A Kenyan police officer chats with men during a patrol as the country faces emergency food insecurity while being plunged into a social and political crisis, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 3, 2024.
“There are a lot of armed groups that are like birds of prey waiting to swoop on these people and take advantage of them,” said Sam Guillaume, of the Haiti Returnee and Refugee Support Group.
Mr. Guillaume accuses Dominican authorities of hunting down Haitians, saying some are extorted, raped or held in prison without food or water and subjected to beatings or tear gas if they dare to protest.
Radhafil Rodríguez, the Dominican Republic’s adviser to the OAS, said the government rejected accusations of mistreatment and would take any complaints “very seriously” and investigate. He argued that the crisis in Haiti was disproportionately affecting the Dominican Republic, saying these migrants are overwhelming schools, clinics and hospitals.
Mr. Rodriguez said his country stands in solidarity with the Haitian people during their crisis, but he added that no one could expect him to stop the expulsions.
Calls for dialogue
MM. Both Rodriguez and Thomas called for dialogue, as Haitian officials met urgently to talk about the expulsions and created a task force to manage the influx of migrants and their needs.
“The forced and mass deportation of our Haitian compatriots in the Dominican Republic is a violation of the fundamental principles of human dignity,” Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille wrote on Tuesday on the social network X.
Mass expulsions have led to an increase in the number of abandoned children across the Dominican Republic, warned activist William Charpentier, coordinator of the Dominican Republic-based National Coalition for Migration and Refugees. “They take their parents, or one of the parents, and leave the children behind, even while they are at school,” he argued.
Mr. Charpentier called the deportations “a form of persecution against black people, against everything they presume to be Haitian.” He said even people with legal documents are detained and deported — a practice that activists say has happened in previous years.
Ocicle Batista, a 45-year-old Haitian migrant who sells avocados in the capital, Santo Domingo, accused soldiers of demanding the equivalent of between US$230 and US$330 to avoid expulsions, “even when they have their papers in hand,” she said of the migrants. “We come here to work. »
Luis Rafael Lee Ballester, the Dominican Republic’s migration director, said human rights were respected and proportionate use of force was used when arresting migrants. He argued that those in possession of documents were detained because they did not have “reliable identification” to justify their presence in the country.
From 1er as of October 7, 7,591 people were deported and 3,323 repatriated to Haiti, according to the government, which declared that all of these people were Haitian.