Dominican Republic intends to expel 10,000 Haitians each week, up to 500,000
Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) has criticized the “brutal and racist” deportation campaign launched by the Dominican Republic authorities and has called on the Dominican government to respect its international commitments.
“The Republic of Haiti urges the Dominican Republic to respect its international commitments in the context of these forced repatriations and to put an end to its brutal and racist expulsion operations,” the CPT said in an official statement.
Port-au-Prince also urges the Dominican Republic to “respect the clauses of the 1999 Memorandum of Agreement on Repatriations and those of the various international conventions it has signed.”
Specifically, the CPT refers to “multiple irregularities and cases of abuse” documented and which constitute a “systematic violation” of the Memorandum of Understanding on repatriations signed in 1999 between the two States.
On Sunday 6 October alone, nearly 3,500 people were expelled through the Belladère and Ouanaminthe border crossings without a list being submitted or prior notification to the Haitian diplomatic missions. In addition, these people have been expelled without their belongings and even had their identity documents taken from them, Haiti denounces.
It also denounces that “physical signs have been observed” in several of these deportees and cases of unaccompanied minors and criticises the fact that diplomatic personnel have not been allowed access to the detention centres.
It also mentions that these expulsions would have violated several rules included in the Vienna Conventions on diplomatic relations, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (2018) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
On October 3, Dominican President Luis Abinader announced his intention to deport 500,000 Haitians at a rate of 100,000 per week. The latest official data estimates 11,177 repatriated in the first week of the operation.
