22882: Esser: Haitians Displaced by Political Reprisals (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

Haitians Displaced by Political Reprisals

Mamie Mutchler

Refugees International - USA
Website: http://www.refugeesinternational.org
August 5, 2004

Contacts: Mamie Mutchler ri@refugeesinternational.org or 202.828.0110

Haitians Displaced by Political Reprisals

Political violence and a culture of reprisals have forced the
internal displacement of politically active members of Haitian
society. Haitians fleeing persecution must hide in their own country
because the U.S. and the Dominican Republic are making it difficult
for them to receive asylum, -or even protection.

On a recent mission to Haiti Refugees International spoke with
journalists, elected local council members and a former mayor, all of
whom had family members who were slain in retaliation for their
political affiliations. One woman in Port-au-Prince said that her
husband, who had been mayor of a provincial town, was assassinated.
“I have six children to feed and am unemployed,” she said. “I have no
family in Port-au-Prince, but I cannot live in my town. We are all
potential targets of violence. I move from house-to-house and depend
on the charity of strangers.” She could not file a complaint with the
police or receive compensation through the courts, because her
husband’s attackers were linked to the police. She has sought the
support of a local human rights organization in Port-au-Prince to
pursue justice and hopefully find economic support.

Another man, who had held a high political post in a provincial
department, showed RI pictures of slain family members. He said a
group of former army officers had gone to his home. When they did not
find him, they killed three of his family members, including
children. “I fled to Port-au-Prince, but I am still afraid. I am sure
that they are still looking for me. I don’t travel freely, and also
move house-to-house. There are at least another 20 people like me
from my town of Belladere, who face similar violence.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that “everyone has
the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from
persecution,” yet the U.S. is working hard to block refugees and
asylum seekers. In February, with violence rising in Haiti and the
government collapsing, President Bush said, “We will turn back any
refugee that attempts to reach our shore, and that message needs to
be very clear as well to the Haitian people.” U.S. Coast Guard
vessels intercept Haitian boats headed to Florida. Haitians whom U.S.
immigration authorities believe have a credible fear of persecution
and have not yet reached the United States are held at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, pending resettlement in another country. Many Haitians who
have reached the U. S. are detained without bond and in some cases
held for up to two years at the Krome Processing Center in Miami. The
vast majority of almost 2,000 Haitians who were interdicted at sea in
the first quarter of the year were returned summarily to Haitian
ports with little or no support from local authorities.

The Dominican Republic also closed its border with Haiti during the
violence in February and March, despite obligations under the U.N.
Refugee Convention and admonishments from the U.N. refugee
organization, UNHCR. Military from the Dominican Republic set up
camps for those fleeing violence on the Haitian side of the border in
an effort to ensure that Haitians refugees did not enter the country.

Paradoxically the Dominican border reopened within several weeks to
allow for an informal and unregulated free trade between both
countries. Each Monday and Friday the border at Ounamenthe, Haiti,
and Djabon, Dominican Republic, opens for trade, ensuring easy access
to informal labor for the Dominican Republic, and Haitian access to
cheaper imports. An estimated 800,000 economic migrants from Haiti
work primarily in agriculture and as domestic help in the Dominican
Republic, where they have no legal rights. Of these up to 20,000
unaccompanied children are unwittingly trafficked into the country to
be used as labor in violation of the International Convention on the
Rights of the Child. They often have no means of returning to family
members in Haiti. An unknown number of women are trafficked annually
into prostitution.

The open border does allow easy access to the country for Haitians
fleeing ongoing political violence, but only 700 Haitians have been
able to apply successfully for asylum in the Dominican Republic. Of
these, all of whom arrived in the past three years, not a single one
has been fully processed or granted the right to asylum. Although
there is a formal asylum procedure in place, established in part with
UNHCR help, it does not function. The responsible body, CONAVI has
never convened to decide a case. As a result Haitian asylum seekers
have very few legal entitlements in the Dominican Republic. They are
not permitted to work, and their children of secondary school age are
prohibited from attending classes. They are not even free from
deportation. Recently a 15 year old Haitian asylum seeker was
deported after being detained by police a few blocks from her home.
The police did not contact the girl’s family, and there is currently
no trace of her in Haiti. There is simply a record of her having been
deported to the border by the Dominican authorities.to the border by
the Dominican authorities.

Refugees International deplores the current conditions for Haitian
IDPs and asylum seekers and recommends that:

The Haitian government act with all deliberate speed to ensure
political freedoms, and to guarantee the safety of its citizens.

The U.S. grant temporary protective status to all Haitian asylum
seekers as long as political turmoil continues. Haitian asylum
seekers should not be subject to detention proceedings, which treat
them as criminals instead of as victims deserving a fair and just
determination of their legal status.

The Dominican Republic comply with its existing law and ensure that
CONAVI start proceedings to normalize the status of Haitian asylum
seekers, who should also enjoy the basic rights of education and to
seek employment.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights thoroughly
study the issue of internal displacement in Haiti, and ensure that
displaced families receive adequate protection.

RI Human Rights Advocate Mamie Mutchler recently returned from Haiti
and the Dominican Republic.

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not
of Reuters. ]