Haitian deportation crisis brews in Dominican Republic

Yamiche Alcindor | USA TODAY

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — The Organization of American States was weighing in here over the weekend to help defuse a brewing crisis over the Dominican Republic's plan to deport tens of thousands of Haitians living in the country.

On street corners, in restaurants and in living rooms in this capital city, people gathered to loudly debate how the government should handle Haitian immigration and the Dominican Republic's relationship with its neighbor that occupies the western part of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

Fear among Haitian descendants is widespread as they try to learn their fate under Dominican citizenship rules that may force many living here for years to leave. Activists say the Dominican Republic has a long history of discriminating against Haitians, who tend to be darker-skinned and poorer.

Immigration became a big issue after a catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, prompting tens of thousands to seek refuge in the Dominican Republic.

As tensions have risen, Dominican government leaders met with Haitian officials and the OAS, which sent a mission here Friday. OAS spent the weekend visiting the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as meeting with civil society and private sector representatives in Haiti.

"Dominican Republic is not going to deport any person who was born on Dominican soil," Josue Fiallo, an adviser to the Dominican ministry of the presidency, told USA TODAY. "We are going to look into every person's case to determine the truth. Therefore, I think it's not a subject that should create fear or generate anxiety."

Fiallo added the government realizes deportations in the past may not have involved the due process needed but that this time, the government would make sure people's cases were investigated.

In 2013, the Dominican Republic's Supreme Court ruled that people born between 1929 and 2010 in the country to non-citizen parents did not qualify as Dominican citizens. The decision effectively stripped tens of thousands of people of their nationality retroactively, prompting activists to accuse the government of making people stateless. The majority of the people affected were people born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents.

Following the ruling, the government created a plan to restore nationality for thousands of people who could prove they were born in the country.

Officials also created a program to consider granting legal residency to non-citizens — many of them Haitian workers — who could establish their identity and prove they arrived before October 2011. The deadline to apply to the non-citizen program was June 17. Since then, some 41,200 Haitians have voluntarily returned to Haiti from the Dominican Republic, Fiallo said.

Even so, Haitian Foreign Minister Lener Renauld accused the Dominican Republic of dumping undocumented Haitians at the border "like dogs" and asked the Dominican Republic to return to the negotiating table so that the two nations could figure out how best to receive potentially tens of thousands of Haitians living illegally in the Dominican Republic, The Miami Herald reported.

"We are interested in avoiding massive deportations, which would lead to splitting households and tearing children away from their parents," Renauld said, the newspaper reported.

Fiallo said the Dominican government won't separate families but is frustrated that Haiti has not helped more. He said many people are still waiting for Haiti to issue them passports and proper documents so they can apply to the immigration programs.

Michele Daius said he is terrified of the changes the government has implemented. Daius, 50, came to the Dominican Republic from Haiti 40 years ago and spent all that time as an undocumented sugarcane cutter.

He worked in fields across the northern part of the country but never registered as a citizen and doesn't have any documents from Haiti or the Dominican Republic to prove his identity. Now, he spends each day anticipating that immigration officers will forcibly remove him from his home on a batey, communities established for migrant workers.

"I sleep with one eye open and one eye closed," Daius said. "As soon as a rooster crows or a dog barks, I think it's an immigration guard. Why? Because I don't have papers and I don't get any respect in this country. I rather just die and be buried than be in this misery."

Fiallo said deportations connected to the program have not started and that officials are only deporting people caught coming into the country recently.

However, activists and residents said in the past, deportations in Dominican Republic have violated human rights standards.

"Unfortunately there is a history of deportations that don't follow those rules and are mired by irregularities and corruption and separating children and family," said Marselha Goncalves Margerin, advocacy director for the Americas at Amnesty International USA. "Deportations can happen in a transparent way, giving notice to the other country, during the day, not pulling people out of the beds and paying attention to family unity."

She stressed that the Dominican officials must ensure that deportations, if needed, are done in a way that follows human rights standards and includes due process.

In the meantime, some like retired professor Valeria Estevez, 57, welcomed the idea of swift mass deportations. She lives in Dajabon, a border town where each day people travel between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

"It's a difficult situation but we have to deport them because the country is full of Haitians," she said. "The country can't support too many Haitians."

The OAS said it is "seeking to promote a solution for migrants" based on international law. Representatives plan to meet with activists and affected people this weekend, said Liliana Dolis, general coordinator for MUDHA, an immigration group working to register migrant workers.

"OAS should find a way to talk with the government so they will protect organizations, the migrants and all the people affected by the law," Dolis said.