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Crisis between Haiti and Dominican Republic worsens as deportations loom large

Xinhua, July 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Dominican Republic accused Haiti of weakening bilateral ties on Wednesday, after receiving a broadside from the Haitian government, which described the Dominican immigration policy as racist and in violation of human rights.

The accusation by the Dominican Republic came after Haiti withdrew its ambassador in the country on Tuesday, in response to an identification program seeking to identify Haitians and expel them from the country.

Hundreds of Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent marched through the streets of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday in Haiti denouncing the "racist and xenophobic" Dominican Constitutional Court.

The protest stopped outside the office of Haitian Prime Minister Evans Paul, who said he had taken note of the people's demands and rejected the Dominican demand that the Haitian government apologize for its accusations.

This crisis dates back to 2013, when the Dominican Constitutional Court ruled that a woman with Haitian ancestry but born in the Deominican Republic had no right to obtain Dominican citizenship due to her parents being undocumented immigrants.

A year after this ruling, the government created the National Plan for the Regularization of Foreigners (PNRE), which targeted undocumented immigrants and their children born in the country.

The first phase of PNRE was concluded on June 17, when the government announced that all those concerned who had not signed up with the program would be repatriated. As many as 288,466 people had signed up with the PNRE by that date and were now waiting for their new migratory status to be resolved within 45 days.

International agencies estimate this would see the repatriation of over 200,000 Haitians, many of whom are essentially stateless as they are not recognized as a citizen by either side.

In response to this figure, Paul said that the influx of Haitians already returning home to a country still devastated from the 2010 earthquake was causing a humanitarian crisis.

According to another law, another 61,755 people, mostly immigrants with proper documentation or those born in the Dominican Republic, would be able to enter a new process of naturalization set to take two years. Endi