Today is the final day for thousands of people with Haitian ancestry living in the Dominican Republic to prove they have a right to continue living there. From Here and Now:
“The Dominican government says that after 7 p.m. tomorrow, anyone who can’t show papers proving they’re in the country legally will be subject to expulsion. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians and people of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic have been scrambling to abide…deportees will include people born in the country, who had once believed they were Dominican citizens.”
From the New York Times: In 2013, “a constitutional court moved to strip the citizenship of children born to Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic dating as far back as 1929. Many of the people affected by the ruling had lived their whole lives in the Dominican Republic and knew nothing of Haiti, not even the native language.
International outcry prompted the government to soften its stance somewhat with a law the next year. It promised citizenship to children whose births were registered in the nation’s civil registry, and a chance at nationalization for those not formally registered.
Advocates and international legal bodies said it still fell short. Anything less than full citizenship left these people stateless, belonging neither to their birthplace nor their family’s homeland, they argued.”
How many are vulnerable? The common reference is over 100,000. Rachel Nolan, who reported on the impending deportation in Harper’s, writes 210,000. I’ve also heard between 300,000 and 500,000. But who knows? And what will be the criteria to decide once the expulsions get underway and achieve self-propulsion? Already in poor neighborhoods they are sweeping up “dark-skinned Dominicans with Haitian facial features.”
The Dominican government has set up a number of centers where Dominicans of Haitian descent can try to “regularize” their status, and thus avoid being expelled. It’s a charade. The offices are overcrowded, understaffed, and the needed paperwork doesn’t exist (many Dominicans of Haitian descent were born in rural areas, since their parents came to work the sugar fields, with midwifes and not in hospitals, and were therefore never issued birth certificates).
An aid worker based in the poorer barrios of Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata (the two primary hubs of Haitian immigrants in the DR), who doesn’t want to be named, writes that three days ago, on June 9, local Dominican television media reported that the government solicited transportation companies for up to three dozen large passenger buses to be available on a rotating basis, with an implicit understanding that these would be used for pending deportation trips. “This,” he said, “is an extremely ominous sign.”
“Everything,” the aid worker says, “is set for the deportation.”
Tags: deportation, dominican republic, haiti, news
Related Posts
Horrifying and outrageous.
I’m really glad you’re covering this. It hasn’t been in the news very much and it really needs to be.
I lived in the DR for a little bit about six or seven years ago. Their race relations are really fraught; the DR has been really horrible to Haitians for a very long time. A friend of mine who’s there right now said today that there’s really disturbing propaganda on TV showing Haitians being beaten by cops, with voiceovers saying it’s the DR’s right to keep its borders safe and to control immigration. There are military checkpoints everywhere and officials randomly stopping people to ask for identification.
The DR seems to be staunchly ignoring any criticism from the UN or the EU, so I’m glad the story is finally surfacing more in media here; maybe if more people all around the world learn about it and put pressure on the government they’ll make some changes.
Hi paperbgprincess, I agree this needs to be more in the media and to be clear I’m also completely against it but just a couple of questions: where does your friend live? I´m guessing near the border? I’ve lived most of my life in Santo Domingo, last year I lived in Santiago, regularily take local tourism trips and have never encountered these military checkpoints (I’m Dominican). Also, the voiceovers.. what? I’m really against this whole thing and I agree with you… it’s just that your experience seems to be different from mine so I just wanted to see if it’s because of where I am right now, which is very likely.
I travelled by bus from Dajabon, which is across the border from Haiti, to Santiago a couple of years ago. Every 10-20 minutes, the bus would be stopped at checkpoints that were sometimes run by the military, sometimes by just a dude in a Tshirt with a gun of dubious authority. The guys in the Tshirts tenses to be the biggest dicks All black passengers had to show their passports. Lighter skinned folks did not have to show theirs. This did not happen on the way to Dajabon.
Yes, she’s near the border, in Bahoruco.
Shit. It’s one of those things that you really can’t do anything about (living here in the U.S., without any times to either country), but I’m glad you’re highlighting it.
I read about it last night and wondered how it would be covered in the US media and then I thought about someone on Fox news saying “sounds like a good idea,” which is what would probably happen.
The more time I spend with people, the more I like my dog
Yeah, this is horrifying.
Hi Mallory! I’m a Dominican living in the DR and when I saw my flag under The Toast’s logo on my facebook feed I died a little bit of happiness (yes I’m a fan). Unfortunately, the post is about this very delicate topic and I just wanted to give my two centavos about it, having never commented here before.
First of all, I think everybody has handled Haiti in the worst way possible. The majority of the donations Haiti should have received after the earthquake are “missing”. The Haitian people never got what was meant to be strictly for them. What for some is a tragic disaster for others is a chance to make money (for an example look at the Red Cross). Another example of how badly things have been handled is the MINUSTAH, another international “stabilization” mission that has failed the Haitian people immensely (rape, unjustified violence, etc.). There are other cases but let’s stop there: You have all these big, international aid relief organizations in Haiti since 2010 and there is nothing to show for it.
Then, at least from this spot on this side of the island, the whole thing feels somewhat forced. What is going to happen is an unfair, unjust, inhuman thing to do and I don’t think the majority of the Dominican people agree to it. We are talking about a lot of informal commerce going on between these two countries and a new type of culture that has been born, especially around the border, that points to a normal relationship between the people of two border countries.
I wish I could explain it better but every time there is something that would somewhat harm the image of the Dominican government, something new happens regarding this whole thing with Haiti. This last thing, this mass deportation, coincides with the government modifying the constitution in order to reelect our current president. It sounds a bit conspiracy theory-ish but trust me (this stranger from the internet who has claimed to be a fan): it’s been happening regularly over these last two years; the Dominican media all of the sudden can’t stop talking about Haiti for no reason at all.
After all the nonsense I just wrote my point is to look at whatever is happening with Haiti as something bigger than the common people. Haiti is being exploited by a lot of different entities. This is the most recent way, is all I’m saying.
That and that my goverment sucks.
Ugh, that all sucks.
Wow, thank you, that’s very informative. Glad you spoke up.
Hi paperbgprincess, I agree this needs to be more in the media and to be clear I'm also completely against it but just a couple of questions: where does your friend live? I´m guessing near the border? I've lived most of my life in Santo Domingo, last year I lived in Santiago, regularily take local tourism trips and have never encountered these military checkpoints (I'm Dominican). Also, the voiceovers.. what? I'm really against this whole thing and I agree with you… it's just that your experience seems to be different from mine so I just wanted to see if it's because of where I am right now, which is very likely.
That and that my goverment sucks.
Ugh, that all sucks.
Some days, reading The Toast is an even rockier emotional ride than usual.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pressur…
I only heard about this on twitter yesterday; its disgraceful that something this large can happen without the mainstream media even mentioning it! But then again, I live in the UK and there’s almost definitely a small section of people who would like to see something like this happen here (*cough* UKIP*cough*)
I only heard about this on twitter yesterday; its disgraceful that something this large can happen without the mainstream media even mentioning it! But then again, I live in the UK and there's almost definitely a small section of people who would like to see something like this happen here (*cough* UKIP*cough*)
I am sick about this whole thing.