26161: Arthur (news) Dominican Republic continues to force Haitians out of the country (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com


30 Aug 2005 16:13:00 GMT

Christian Aid - UK
Website: http://www.christianaid.org.uk


Over the past few weeks the Dominican Republic has been rounding Haitians up,
forcing them onto buses and dumping them on the border in the middle of the
night. More than 2,000 have already been forced to return home.

Christian Aid partner, the Haiti Support Group (HSG) says: âThese people have
been arrested by the Dominican police, army and immigration agents, on the
basis of the colour of their skin and their inability to speak fluent Spanish.
Some Dominicans have been mistaken for Haitians and deported.â

Christian Aid partners have been monitoring the situation on both sides of
the border. The Support Group for Refugees & Repatriated Persons (GARR) in Haiti
has been working closely with the Jesuit Refugee & Migrant Service (SJRM) in
the Dominican Republic.

GARR and SJRM claim that thousands have been forced to leave their homes with
only the clothes on their backs. They are not allowed to take their
belongings or their identity documents. If they do have documents, they are being
confiscated or destroyed. In some cases children have been separated from their
parents

According to a joint report by GARR and SJRM: âPrior to deportations,
detained people have been kept for three to five days without food or access to
toilets. Deportees have been mistreated and beaten. There have been acts of
aggression and intimidation.â

Heavy rains mean that conditions on the border are appalling. The deportees
are forced to walk for twelve miles before reaching Belladere, the nearest town
in Haiti. Helen Spraos, Christian Aidâs representative in Haiti says:
âBelladere already has a severe water supply problem, no public toilets and a
typhoid and malaria epidemic.â

In a joint declaration, GARR and SJRM point out that the Dominican government
is breaking an international agreement on deportations. This agreement was
drawn up by the Haitian and Dominican governments in 1999. It states that no
deportations should be carried out at night and no families separated. The recent
deportations clearly breach these conventions.

GARR and SJRM want the Haitian government to challenge the Dominican
government for the 1999 agreement violations. They also want the Haitian government to
help the deportees.

Colette Lespinasse, the GARR Coordinator, says: âWe condemn the recent
repatriations and the violence that has accompanied them. The problem of illegal
migration will not be solved in this way and must instead be tackled at its
roots.

âLong-term migrants must be granted residency and their descendants must be
given Dominican nationality in accordance with the constitution.

The Dominican government carried out mass repatriations in 1991 and 1999.
However, large numbers of Haitians continue to cross the border fleeing the
desperate situation in their home country. They work as sugar cane cutters, tobacco
and coffee pickers and construction labourers.