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The Dominican Republic started the long-pending deportation of undocumented migrants on Friday, putting thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent on the brink of deportation.
Immigrants who are not able to produce documentation to immigration patrols to prove the legality of their stay in the Dominican Republic have been detained and transported to migrant shelters by authorities to await deportation.
However, it remains unknown when they will be deported to Haiti, Dominican Republic’s Diario Libre reported. Authorities have not released information about the number of people being deported or the number of children who will be affected by the massive round up of undocumented people.
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A government-imposed deadline for undocumented migrants to register in the state regularization plan came down on June 17. But spaces in the plan are limited, processing time is slow, and many immigrants have had difficulty navigating the process due to the lack of information provided, leaving thousands in a precarious undocumented situation when the deadline into effect.
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Impresionante. La frontera de RD & Haití. Please Always #PrayForHaiti pic.twitter.com/J9LhsRKI2m
— Fearless Generation (@fearlesscdj1)
August 6, 2015
“The border between Dominican Republic and Haiti.”
Some half a million Haitian-Dominicans instantly became undocumented in 2013 when a controversial Dominican court decision stripped Haitian descendents of Dominican citizenship retroactively.
Only a fraction of these stateless Haitian-Dominicans have been able to successfully regularize their undocumented status, leaving thousands vulnerable in the face of state patrols to detain and deport immigrants without papers.
In the face of the harsh new policy and fearing mass expulsions, tens of thousands of Haitians have already fled the Dominican Republic to avoid abrupt deportation. With nowhere to go and Haiti lacking the resources to support a mass influx of returned migrants, thousands have been forced into makeshift camps in Haiti’s border regions.
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Haiti, the poorest country in the region and still recovery from its devastating 2010 earthquake, has criticized the Dominican Republic for fomenting a humanitarian crisis on the shared island of Hispaniola.
Dominican authorities have repeatedly stated that immigration policy is a sovereign national issue and that they will not engage in dialogue with Haiti, despite an offer by the Organization of American States to facilitate talks.
Meanwhile, as deportation patrols resumed on Friday, Washington called on the Dominican Republic to act humanely, raising concerns that migrants may not have had “sufficient time and means to access the processes to regulate and formalize their status.”
“We urge the Dominican Republic to avoid mass deportations and to conduct any deportations in a transparent manner that fully respects the human rights of deportees,” said U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner on Friday.
All we want is justice and human rights for everyone in the Dominican Republic! Restore citizenship to #Dominicans! pic.twitter.com/7QXPLNWwHY
— Jumaane (@JumaaneWilliams)
August 14, 2015
The U.S. statement comes after people in various U.S. cities have rallied in solidarity with Haitian migrants since June, calling for deportations to be halted.
The comments also join stronger calls from the U.N. last month that urged the Dominican Republic to recognize the existence of “a structural problem of racism and xenophobia.”
“The Dominican Republic does not recognize the existence of a structural problem of racism and xenophobia."
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Human rights activists say the immigration law is evidence of the Dominican Republic's long history of discrimination against Haitians.
Dominican immigration policy has recently flared long-standing tensions with Haiti, the Dominican Republic’s much poorer neighbor and source of decades of cheap migrant labor, on the shared island of Hispaniola.
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