Dominican Republic Orders the Expulsion of Thousands of Haitian Migrants

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by Oritro Karim (united nations)Friday, October 04, 2024Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 04 (IPS) - Over the past few months, the escalation of gang violence and mass displacement in Haiti have been of great concern for humanitarian organizations. Severe levels of armed violence have resulted in significant instability, with food insecurity, sexual violence, civilian casualities, and restricted freedom of movement plaguing the nation. Displacement cases have risen sharply, to the extent that the Dominican Republic has ordered the return of thousands of Haitian migrants.

On October 3, the Dominican Republic's government announced that they will be expelling approximately 10,000 Haitian migrants per week in an effort to reduce overpopulation in the country. This morning, Homero Figueroa, a spokesperson for Dominican president Luis Abinader, informed reporters that the expulsion order "aims to reduce the excessive migrant populations detected in Dominican communities".

Last year, Abinader facilitated the return of over 250,000 undocumented Haitians from the Dominican Republic. The order announced today states that they plan to expel more than double this number, effective immediately. "We warned at the United Nations that either it and all the countries that had committed themselves act responsibly in Haiti, or we will", stated Abinader in a press briefing this morning.

This comes after the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) urged the United States and Haiti's neighbouring nations to end forced returns of migrants to Haiti. On May 17, the UNHCR released a social media statement, asking the Biden administration to "refrain from forcibly returning Haitians who may face life-threatening risks or further displacement".

Last week on September 27, the United Nations (UN) reported that at least 3,661 civilians had been killed in the first half of 2024 due to "senseless gang violence", with over 100 of them being children. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) added that this is a clear indication that instability in Haiti had been "maintained".

Conditions in Haiti have worsened in the past few months, with over 59 percent of the population living below the poverty line, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that over half of the 700,000 internally displaced persons are children. A quarter of those people live in highly insecure and overcrowded displacement shelters, lacking access to essential services such as healthcare, sanitation, and access to food.

President Abinader's new mandate has been widely criticized by activists and humanitarian organizations, with many opining that it is fueled by xenophobia. 70 percent of the Dominican Republic's population identifies as mixed race, while the vast majority of the Haitian population is black.

In a statement issued on August 28, Amnesty International stated: "Amnesty International has stressed the urgent need for Dominican institutions to eradicate racial profiling, structural racism and racial discrimination, and to guarantee respect for the human dignity and physical integrity of Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent."

It should be noted that prior to this mandate being issued, there were reported cases of prejudice and mistreatment of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic.

"Organizations working on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic continually report cases of deportees being beaten by the Dominican authorities", said Johanna Cilano Pelaez, regional researcher for the Caribbean at Amnesty International.

Additionally, Haitian migrants have been subjected to raids without warrants, kidnappings, and sexual violence, carried out by both uniformed and ununiformed agents.

The UN and its affiliated organizations are currently on the frontlines in Haiti, distributing resources such as food, water, cash transfers, and school kits. However, relief efforts have been severely underfunded, with only 30 percent of the requested 674 million dollars raised so far.