Haitian residents stroll previous the border wall being constructed within the Dominican Republic-Haiti border, in Pedernales, Dominican Republic on Might 15, 2024. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse
SANTO DOMINGO — The Dominican Republic unveiled a plan Wednesday to start out expelling 10,000 undocumented Haitians every week as a part of a crackdown on migration from its troubled neighbor.
“This operation goals to scale back the extreme migrant populations detected in Dominican communities,” presidential spokesman Homero Figueroa stated, including the expulsions would begin “instantly” and be completed “in keeping with strict protocols that guarantee respect for human rights.”
The federal government stated it took the choice in gentle of the worldwide neighborhood’s “slowness” in restoring stability in Haiti, giant elements of which have been overrun by legal gangs.
READ: Dominican Republic president agency on closing all borders with Haiti
After many months of delay, a UN-approved power led by Kenya has been despatched to Haiti to attempt to restore order.
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“We warned on the United Nations that both it and all of the nations that had dedicated themselves (to serving to Haiti) act responsibly in Haiti, or we’ll,” President Luis Abinader stated.
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Since coming to energy in 2020, Abinader has taken a troublesome line on migration from destitute and violence-plagued Haiti.
He constructed a 164-kilometer (102-mile) concrete wall between the 2 nations and promised to increase it when he was handily re-elected in Might for a second time period.
READ: Dominican Republic’s vote is dominated by Haiti disaster
His authorities has additionally dramatically ratcheted up deportations, expelling 250,000 undocumented Haitians in 2023 alone.
The plan introduced Wednesday would greater than double that quantity in a yr — greater than the 495,815 Haitians residing in Dominican Republic, in keeping with official statistics.
Figueroa stated the federal government had drawn up a plan to establish and dismantle networks engaged in human trafficking from Haiti.
The federal government has additionally stated it could step up drone and digicam surveillance of the border.
Fleeing Haiti’s collapse
Dominican Republic, which covers two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola and is especially Spanish-speaking, has a historical past of fractious relations with its a lot poorer neighbor, the place French and Creole are spoken.
Haitians have for many years sought to carve out a greater life within the Dominican Republic, a Caribbean tourism hotspot with one of many fastest-growing economies in Latin America.
The collapse of Haiti’s financial system and its descent into gang warfare adopted a devastating earthquake in 2010, with every disaster exacerbating the movement of Haitians throughout the border.
The UN human rights workplace says greater than 3,600 folks have been killed this yr in gang violence in Haiti.
Greater than 700,000 folks have been displaced from their properties, over half of them youngsters, the UN’s Worldwide Group for Migration stated Wednesday in Geneva.
Throughout the presidential marketing campaign, each Abinader and his principal rival rejected strain from the worldwide neighborhood for the nation to permit in additional folks fleeing Haiti’s collapse.
Haitian communities within the Dominican Republic report widespread discrimination and racism, together with from the state and safety providers.