Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20211206

A30 world news
Dialuna 6 December 2021

Dominican Republic expels, mistreats Haitians, activists say

The government has repeat- and works in construction
edly said it treats migrants but also helps migrants cross
humanely. Abinader recently illegally, paying Dominican
told the United Nations that officials anywhere from $35
his country had borne the to $90 to look the other way.
burden of dealing with the In mid-November, he placed
ripples of Haiti’s crises on a group waiting to cross on
its own, without much help hold.
from the rest of the world.
“For now, it’s best that they
While his country has dem- stay over there. Until things
onstrated solidarity and col- cool down,” he said.
laboration with Haiti and
will keep doing so, he said, “I And yet, some still insist on
also reiterate that there is not making their way to the DR.
and will never be a Domini-
can solution to the crisis in St. Clair, the teenager ma-
Haiti.” rooned in Dajabon, looked
around as immigration offi-
His own ministers have re- cials who had detained him
ferred darkly to Haitians as left and authorities prepared
invaders: In early Novem- to close the border for the
ber, Jesús Vázquez, Domini- night. Gone was the stream
(AP) — Bien-Aimé St. of targeting vulnerable popu- can minister of the interior of border crossers, the rum-
Clair frowned as the lations, separating children He announced an audit of and police, inaugurated the ble of trucks and roar of mo-
stream of older Haitian from their parents and racial some 220,000 people previ- first of several dozen offices torcycles carrying plantains,
migrants pushed past him. profiling -- Haiti is over- ously awarded immigration where foreigners will be re- onions and other goods.
Accused of living in the whelmingly Black, while the status to determine if they quired to register.
Dominican Republic ille- majority Dominicans iden- still qualify, and he warned Apologetic UNICEF work-
gally, they knew they had tify as mixed race. Domini- that anyone who provides He told reporters: “The main ers had told him they couldn’t
no choice but to go back can authorities, they say, are transportation or housing to threat that the Dominican help -- he turned 18 in Octo-
across the border to Haiti. not only seeking out Haitians undocumented migrants will Republic faces nowadays is ber and was now considered
who recently crossed illegally be fined. And he suspended Haiti, and we are called upon an adult.
But St. Clair, 18, hesitated. into the Dominican Repub- pension payments owed to to defend our homeland.”
He shouted at an immigra- lic, but also those who have hundreds of former sugar- St. Clair began walking back
tion agent. long lived there. cane workers -- most of them The raids, deportations and toward the Dominican Re-
Haitian. mistreatment by the govern- public. One concerned im-
“Boss! Hey! I don’t know “We’ve never seen this,” said ment have dissuaded some migration official yelled after
anyone there,” he yelled in William Charpantier, nation- The measures follow Abi- Haitians from crossing into him, “Where are you going
Spanish, motioning toward al coordinator for the non- nader’s announcement in the Dominican Republic, ac- to sleep? You don’t have any
Haiti as he stood on the fron- profit National Roundtable February that his adminis- cording to a human smuggler money.”
tier that the two countries for Migration and Refugees. tration would build a mul- who only gave his first name
share on the island of His- “The government is acting timillion-dollar, 118-mile as Luis Fernando. St. Clair didn’t respond. As
paniola. like we’re at war.” (190-kilometer) wall along the sun set, he slipped past
the Haitian border. He was born in Haiti but has authorities, sneaked into the
St. Clair was a child when his They’ve arrested Haitians lived in the Dominican Re- Dominican Republic and dis-
mother brought him to the who crossed illegally into the Haiti and the Dominican Re- public for 19 years. He paints appeared down a quiet street.
Dominican Republic, and Dominican Republic; Hai- public have long had a wary
though his life has been hard tians whose Dominican work and difficult relationship,
-- his mom died when he was permits have expired; those stained by a 1937 massacre in
young, his father disappeared, born in the DR to Haitian which thousands of Haitians
and he was left alone to raise parents but denied citizen- were killed under Domini-
his disabled brother -- it’s the ship; even, activists say, Black can dictator Rafael Trujillo.
only life he has known. Dominicans born to Domin-
ican parents whom authori- Racism and rejection of Hai-
And now, he was being ties mistake for Haitians. tians is still palpable, with
forced to leave, like more Dominicans cursing them
than 31,000 people deported Haitian officials and activists or making disparaging com-
by the Dominican Republic also say the government is vi- ments when they see them
to Haiti this year, more than olating laws and agreements on the street.
12,000 of them in just the past by deporting pregnant wom-
three months -- a huge spike, en, separating children from Still, hundreds of thousands
observers say. As the rest of parents and arresting people of Haitians were believed to
the world closes its doors to between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. live in the Dominican Re-
Haitian migrants, the coun- public, even before many fled
try that shares an island with Meanwhile, activists say hos- Haiti in recent months in the
Haiti also is cracking down in tility against Haitians is spi- wake of a presidential assas-
a way that human rights ac- raling as Abinader unleashed sination, a 7.2 magnitude
tivists say hasn’t been seen in a flurry of anti-Haitian ac- earthquake, a severe shortage
decades. tions. of fuel and a spike in gang-
related violence and kidnap-
The increasing mistreatment He suspended a student- pings.
of the country’s Haitians, visa program for Haitians,
they say, coincided with the prohibited companies from “We don’t come here to take
rise of Luis Abinader, who drawing more than 20% of over the country. We’re try-
took office as president in their workforce from mi- ing to survive,” said Gaetjens
August 2020. grant workers and ordered Thelusma of the nonprofit
Haitian migrants to register group We Will Save Haiti.
They accuse the government their whereabouts.