#1382: Many HT-Dominicans news: 76% are not against Haitian migration. (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Yacine Khelladi <yacine@aacr.net>

dominican news on haiti follows - all from DR1 newsletters
since 23-11-99 to 13-12-99
================================
December 13- 1999
14. More poll results
Hoy Hamilton & Staff survey showed that 57% of Dominicans believe
Haitians should only be allowed to migrate to the DR if they have a work
permit. Moreover,	
.........


> DR1 Daily News  Tuesday, 7 December 1999
 
> 4. Haiti government sets up tents for deported Haitians
> The government of Haiti, with the funding of the European Union, is setting up tents to lodge along the frontier Haitians deported from the Dominican Republic. The tents are going up besides the Dominican city of Elías Piña. Hoy reported that the camps will be set up at the frontier crosses of Ouanaminthe-Dajabon, Anses-a-Pitre-Pedernales and Malpasse-Jimaní. The Dominican government agreed with Haiti recently that the deportations could only be made through those points.
> Most of the deported Haitians will eventually return to the DR, as Dominican frontier authorities say the problem of the large number of Haitian migrants will not be stopped until living conditions are improved in Haiti.


> DR1 Daily News  Friday, 3 December 1999
> 
> 
> 2. DR and Haiti migration agreements
> The Haitian government committed to double efforts to issue identity cards to its citizens. Most Haitians who cross the frontier do so without any legal documentation or identification of any kind. The Haitian government does not make it mandatory for its citizens to get their identity cards, birth certificates, or any legal documentation. This has brought major difficulties when the Haitians seek to integrate with life in the DR. The commitment was made as part of agreements after an extraordinary migration meeting was held on Wednesday and Thursday at the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Santo Domingo.
> Dominican and Haitian authorities committed to implement a series of mechanisms for the deporting of Haitians from the DR. DR agreed that deportations can only be made from 8 to 6 pm, and from 8 to noon on Sundays and holidays of both countries.
> The Dominican government agreed to not separate immediate families (parents and children) when deporting Haitians.
> The new protocol was signed by the Dominican Ambassador in Charge of Haitian Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Relations Wenceslao Guerrero and by Guy Lamothe, charge d’affairs of the Haitian Embassy in the DR. Haiti has not sent an ambassador to the DR.
> It was agreed that deportations will be made exclusively through the points of Jimaní/Malpasse, Dajabón/Quanaminthe, Elías Piña/Belladere and Pedernales/Anse-a-Pitre.
> The Haitian government committed to reinforce and establish migration inspection booths at those points to receive the deported Haitians.
> The protocol also establishes that the authorities will facilitate that the deported Haitians leave together with their belongings.
> It was also agreed that the Dominican Migration Department will report the list of the persons to be deported with reasonable time to the Haitian authorities.
> 

> DR1 Daily News  Thursday, 2 December 1999
> 
> 4. Lack of ID papers worsens case of Haitians in DR
> El Caribe newspaper points out that the Dominican government plan to provide identification to an estimated 300,000 Haitian agriculture worker has met with serious difficulties in its implementation. Most Haitians do not have a name or say they do not know what it is, are not registered in their country, and have no identification documents whatsoever, or reject receiving the status of temporary workers preferring to attempt to permanently reside in the country.
> Miguel Melo, former president of the committee of coffee of the Junta Agroempresarial Dominicana (JAD), the director of Migration, Danilo Diaz Vizcaino and the Deputy Minister of Interior and Police Manuel Tapia Cunillera, concur the lack of identity of the indigent migrants presents extra difficulties to Dominican authorities. Tapia Cunillera said that 99% of those working in farm areas have no identification documents. In Haiti, only a very small minority of the population has identification papers.
> Dominican government has requested that the Haitian government provide identity cards to its citizens. The European Union has offered to fund this exercise.
> 
> 5. DR and Haiti meet to discuss migration issues
> The Ministers of Foreign Relations of the DR and Haiti met yesterday in Santo Domingo for a new round of migration issue discussions. Minister of Foreign Relations Eduardo Latorre urged Dominicans and Haitians to "not allow themselves to be overtaken by voices and insensible media that want instantaneous solutions."
> He said it is a duty of both nations to assume with responsibility the obligations, without inherence of any kind.
> Latorre again stressed that the migration of Haitians to the DR is the result of the differences in the levels of development of the two countries. People will always migrate to where there are more job and welfare opportunities.
> According to a report in El Siglo, Haiti presented a list of 14 requests. Haiti requests that the DR grant refugee status to illegal Haitian migrants. This was rejected by the Dominican negotiators on grounds that there is not a state of war between both countries. The DR agreed to not separate families at the time of deporting Haitians.
> 

30-11-99

5. Armed Forces says it is reinforcing vigilance on frontier with Haiti
The Ministry of Armed Forces says that it is reinforcing the Dominican
vigilance of the frontier area, posting trained units to protect the
environment and reduce contraband of weapons, drugs and the crossing of
illegal Haitians. Chief of the Air Force, Major General Hugo González
Borrell said that in Pedernales, for instance, pilots, doctors, and
infantry personnel are being stationed. Nevertheless, Minister of the
Armed Forces Manuel de Jesús Florentino recognized that the Dominican
military does
not have the equipment to effectively watch over the frontier with
Haiti. The Mixed Bilateral Commission of Haiti and the DR is scheduled
to meet tomorrow in Santo Domingo to discuss the controversial migration
issues. See yesterday’s briefs, for more on Haiti at
www.dr1.com/daily/news112999.shtml


> DR1 Daily News -  Monday, 29 November 1999
> 
> ********************************************************************************
> 
> 2. President Fernández hosts President Preval for lunch at National Palace
> President Rene Preval of Haiti and President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic met for lunch for an hour and a half on Saturday. President Preval was in the DR for the II African, Caribbean and Pacific Summit that concluded on Saturday. He had already shared President Fernández’s table at other activities during the summit. At the end of the meeting, a press note was released by the National Palace announcing a Wednesday meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Dominican Republic of the ministers of foreign relations of both countries and directors of the departments of migration. The director of Migration of Haiti recently did not show up at a meeting Minister of Foreign Relations of Haiti Fritz Longchamps had requested. In the press note, Haiti recognizes the right of the DR to carry out deportations of undocumented Haitians. Deportations are suspended, nevertheless.
> In addition to the ministers of foreign relations, also present at the luncheon were Haitian ambassador Guy Lamothe; the coordinator for the Lomé program in the DR, Max Puig; Minister of the Armed Forces Lieutenant General Manuel de Jesús Florentino; Secretary of the Presidency Alejandrina Germán; and the directors of migration of both countries.
> Upon being interviewed prior to departing from the DR, President Rene Preval said that migration of Haitians to the DR would only stop when living conditions in Haiti. He feels the help of the international community is necessary for this.
> The political, social and economic crisis that is by now normal in Haiti has impeded that country from getting its act together and moving on to development. For Haiti, the migration of thousands of its illiterate poor is essential to resolving its national problems and social pressure.
> For the DR, the migration is a heavy burden on already precarious health, education and environmental services. A recent United Nations study shows there is only 1% of forests left in Haiti. Likewise, birth control is not part of the Haitian culture.
> The international community had promised millions in aid would flow in following the 1995 military intervention of Haiti to restore Jean Bertrand Aristide carried out at a time hundreds of Haitians were traveling by boat to attempt entering the US. This aid never materialized as promised. And as a result of the embargo forced on Haiti to restore Aristide, that nation losts hundreds of jobs in free zone industries. To this day, political and cultural problems within Haiti, continue to be its major obstacle to progress.
> Today, while migration to the US has considerably been reduced by US coast guard efforts, migration to the DR is now up as there are less opportunities within Haiti. Realistically speaking, there is no way the DR can stop Haitian migration across the about 300-kilometer border. Nor can it manage the logistics and cost of deporting those already living in the DR. It is well known that most of those deported, find a way to return. More over, whenever the local authorities have deported undocumented Haitians, the Haitian diplomacy is quick to get sectors abroad to present the DR as "the bad guys." Indeed, while President Preval publicly accepted the DR’s right to deport undocumented Haitians, Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis threatened the DR government with strong measures to be taken by the international organizations if the repatriations continued.
> Gradually, in the DR there is more of an awareness of the need to help Haiti to develop, erst Haitians will undevelop the DR. One leading business group in Santiago, has plans to install free zone industries along the frontier if the US Congress passes the textile parity bill. The National Union of Businessmen (UNE) has requested that the DR foreign debt be condoned and moneys used to build hospitals and schools, as well as develop work centers, along the frontier to provide new opportunities to indigent Haitians. Other organizations are pressing for an increase in international aid to Haiti. Today aid to Haiti is difficult to channel due to lack of institutions, and rampant corruption within that nation.

> ********************************************************************************
> DR1 Daily News -  Wednesday, 24 November 1999
> ********************************************************************************
> 
> 6. Haiti-DR migration meeting set for next week
> The ministers of foreign relations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, Eduardo Latorre and Fritz Longchamps announced that next week migration technicians from both countries would meet to find solutions to the problems of the flow of Haitians to the DR and the repatriations. The diplomats said the city where the meeting would take place has not yet been decided. A first meeting called by Longchamps last Friday to be held in Jimaní, on the frontier with Haiti, had to be aborted when the Haitian migration authorities did not show.
> 


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> DR1 Daily News - Tuesday, 23 November 1999
> 
> ********************************************************************************
> 4. DR government accepts Haitian apology
> The Dominican government accepted the apology of the Haitian government that did not show up at a programmed meeting of heads of the migration departments (www.dr1.com/daily/news112299.shtml). The Haitian government sent the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Dominican Republic a diplomatic note explaining that their absence was due to a "misunderstanding." The Dominican Ministry of Foreign Relations said that Minister Eduardo Latorre would meet with his colleague Fritz Longchamps in Santo Domingo today to continue discussing the migration issue. The migration of thousands of undocumented, illiterate and indigent Haitians to the the DR is a heavy burden on local social services. Minister Longchamps is in Santo Domingo to participate in the II ACP Summit. President Rene Preval of Haiti is also expected tomorrow in Santo Domingo for the summit that opens on Thursday.
> 
> 5. Reducing Haitian migration to US is priority of new US-Haiti coordinator
> The Spanish press agency (EFE) revealed today that the US government has appointed a new special coordinator for Haiti. His functions include promoting democracy, economic growth and respect for human rights in Haiti. Diplomat Donald Steinberg, according to a note from the US Department of State, is also entrusted with reducing drug trafficking and the displacement of illegal Haitian migrants to the US. Steinberg is a former US ambassador in Angola and special advisor on African affairs. He replaces David Greenlee, who was appointed ambassador to Paraguay.
> The US intervened Haiti in 1995 at a time when hundreds of Haitians were attempting to reach the US by small boat.
>