a1540: Dominican Migration - Haitians in the DR (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Merrie Archer <MArcher@nchr.org>

DR1 Daily News -- Thursday, 21 March 2002
Foreigners to decide on Dominican migration?

The touchy Haitian migration issue made headlines yesterday and
again today after Minister of Foreign Relations Hugo Tolentino Dipp
announced the forming of a new Comite de Impulso. The migratory
rights vigilance committee is made up by Dominican government members, and
representatives of foreign pro-Haitian migration lobby groups and will
decide on the migratory status of Haitian migrants in the DR. Reportedly
Columbia University Law students would assist the pro-Haitian migration
lobby groups.

Minister of Foreign Relations Hugo Tolentino Dipp told El Caribe
newspaper that the country was obliged to sign the agreement or face
economic sanctions. He blamed the past government for not defending
the DR better in its first case at the InterAmerican Court of Human
Rights. In 1998, the DR became the last Latin American country to join the
court jurisdiction.

Miguel Pichardo of the Ministry of Foreign Relations explained that
the committee will resolve matters relative to the order issued by
the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights in 2000. But the decision is
being seen locally as uncalled for by the Court ruling and a
violation of Dominican sovereignty.

Back in 2000, the DR went to the court when Belgium priest Pedro Ruquoy and
Haitian-Dominican activist Solange Pierre requested the court rule to outlaw
the Dominican Republic from deporting illegal Haitians. The twosome in their
opening presentation showed a video highlighting the Dominican Republic was
"apartheid in the Caribbean." They sought that the DR not be allowed to
repatriate illegal Haitians until previous conditions they recommended be
met.

At the time, the DR had stepped up the number of deportations, as a
result of the exodus of Haitians that were escaping critical economic and
political situation in their home country.

Ambassador to the OAS Flavio Dario Espinal and Ministry of Foreign
Relations lawyer Servio Tulio Castaņos defended the Dominican Republic
before the InterAmerican court. At the time the Court rejected the petition
to stop the deportations of illegal aliens in general. During the trial it
was also determined that the country had improved the conditions under which
the illegal aliens were being deported. The Court did order that provisional
residence status for seven named persons be granted but left up to the
Department of Migration of the Domincan government the setting of the final
migratory status of the group. See

http://www.corteidh.or.cr/medidas%20ingles/e_iii_18_ing.html

According to an editorial in the Listin Diario, afterwards the Migration
Department was able to locate three of these families whose legal residence
status was established and they were allowed to return to the DR. The
whereabout of the four other individuals is unknown.

The forming of the Comite de Impulso would supposedly expedite the
investigations. But many in the DR are calling it interference in
domestic migratory matters.

In an editorial today, the Listin Diario newspaper writes:
"What we would have liked is that any investigation have been left
in Dominican hands without any type of intervention of Haitians or
Americans in the matter."

Rafaela Alburquerque, president of the Chamber of Deputies says that
the resolution is very damaging and delicate because the DR cannot
carry the burden of the Haitian problems. Furthermore, the president
of the committee on Haitian affairs in the Congress, deputy Pelegrin
Castillo said he would request that the Supreme Court declare in
violation of the constitution the signing of the agreement. He said only
Congress has the right to determine migration policy. He also said they
would request that Minister of Foreign Relations Hugo Tolentino Dipp and
director of Migration Trajano Moreta Cuevas appear before Congress to
explain the details of the agreement. Pelegrin Castillo maintains that an
uncontrolled migration of Haitians to the more prosperous DR is seen by
foreign governments as a short term solution to Haitian social problems.

Flavio Dario Espinal, who defended the DR in the InterAmerican Court of
Human Rights says, "An agreement of any such kind was unnecessary, as the
Court determined that Migration was in charge of deciding on the specific
cases," he said. He told DR1 he had not read the agreement, but that it gave
the impression that the country was committing to some kind of family
reunification policy, granting migratory rights to persons who do not have
migratory rights.

This week the Wall Street Journal reported on the hundreds of thousands of
dollars the government of Jean Bertrand Aristide is paying to Washington
D.C. lobby firms on behalf of his government. An increase in the immigration
of destitute Haitians to the DR is in the best interest of the Haitian
government as it relieves the social pressures within that country.


Dear Corbetters -

This is a partially acurate account of recent work on a case at the
InterAmerican Court on Human Rights. For example, I'm not sure who told Dipp
that the DR would face economic sanctions, but it certainly wasn't the
Court. I was under the impression that the OAS usually works more publicly
when it is considering sanctions, such as with the case of Haiti.

In addition, the previous case against the DR at the court was only brought
to an end with the DR very recently accepting the charges against it - not
under the previous government. I have a press release by the organization
who litigated the case in spanish if anyone is interested in reading /
translating it. It was the case of two young girls of Haitian descent who
were being kept out of school because they could not provide Dominican birth
certificates.

As for the activists, Pedro Ruquoy and Sonia Pierre served as witnesses in
the hearing at the Court on Dominican practices, and did not request the
court to outlaw anything. That was the job of the petitioners. In addition,
the video they mention, called "Expelled" was prepared by the petitioners
and re-released. It is available to the public through NCHR (contact me off
list as the information is not yet on the website).

I will send out more information about the Comite de impulso (supervisory
committee) and the case later this week.