• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > Latin America

Dominican Republic Demands Haiti Apology for Deportations Slam

  • A young mother expresses her concerns to the school principal.

    A young mother expresses her concerns to the school principal. | Photo: IOM

Published 15 July 2015
Opinion

The OAS mission looking into the migration situation between Haiti and the Dominican Republic will deliver a report before year-end.

The Dominican Republic is demanding that Haiti apologize for hurling strong comments at the Dominican government over its controversial immigration immigration policy, refusing to resume dialogue with Haiti until a formal apology is received, Prensa Latina reported Tuesday.

Dominican authorities have taken offense to comments made by Haitian President Michel Martelly and Foreign Minister Lener Renauld before the Organization of American States last week, when they condemned the Dominican Republic for treating Haitians inhumanely and urged the country to “come to its senses.”

“Under no circumstances can we accept that the image of the Dominican Republic is affected, because we are a country that has morals, respect, and at the same time has exchanges with the international community, so we can not allow unfounded accusations devoid of legal basis against us,” said Dominican Vice-Minister of the Presidency Luis Henry Molina, according to Prensa Latina.

Many Haitian-descendents living in the Dominican Republic have left on their own after feeling pressured by authorities and forced out by discriminatory immigration policy. | Photo: Reuters

Dominican immigration policy, hostile toward Haitians and Haitian-descendents in recent years, has flared historical tensions between the two Caribbean nations, which share the island of Hispaniola.

In 2013, about half a million Haitian-Dominicans instantly became stateless when a Dominican court decision retroactively stripped Haitian-descendents of citizenship. Last month, a government-imposed deadline for hundreds of thousands to register with immigration authorities, despite limited spaces, put an expiry date on Haitian-descendents' welcome in the Dominican Republic.

RELATED: Haitian-American Author: Deportations 'State-Sponsored Open Season'

Molina attributed the current chill in relations between the two neighboring to Haiti's internal problems.

The Dominican Republic's request for a formal apology comes as an OAS delegation wraps up a mission in the two countries to assess the migration situation. OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro ordered the delegation after the OAS meeting where Haitian officials made the comments that have prompted calls for apology.

Molina claimed that the OAS delegation found that Dominican immigration policy has been responsible, but the OAS mission has not yet delivered a report on its findings, which is expected “before the end of the year,” EFE reported.

Dominican President Danilo Medina expressed his hope that the OAS report will “tell the truth,” saying the Dominican has “absolutely nothing to hide” and that is why the country welcomed the international delegation in the first place.

“Danilo Medina: ‘I hope that the OAS tells the truth; here there is nothing to hide.’”

Meanwhile, Medina's Haitian counterpart, President Michel Martelly, reiterated his call for the Dominican government to find a “peaceful solution” to the migration crisis and for the international community to join in urging the Dominican Republic to respond, Diario Libre reported.

While Dominican authorities insist all those who have left since the regulation plan came into effect have done so voluntarily, the International Organization for Migration says over 30 percent of those who have recently left the Dominican Republic were deported by various state entities, including the military, police, and immigration officials.

RELATED: Haitians Forced to 'Voluntarily' Leave Dominican Republic

Since the impending registration deadline was announced last year, more than 40,000 Haitian-Dominicans have left the Dominican Republic allegedly voluntarily. Tens of thousands more have been deported.

Human rights activists say the regularization plan, which has essentially been a mass deportation order for Haitian-descendants, just shows the Dominican Republic's long history of discrimination against Haitians.

Comment
1
Comments
as immigrants have done in the USA, but properly documented, even if we arrived undocumented the first goal is "papers" or "Papeles" especially when the opportunity to regularize your status is given to you, as was the case in Dominican Republic.
Post with no popular comments.