A Christian Aid report - March 2006

Executive summary

While Christian Aid does not question the right of governments to deport illegal migrants, the brutal and arbitrary manner in which the Dominican authorities have carried out these deportations contravenes international law and the DR's own agreement with Haiti of 1999. Thousands were deported without warning, regardless of whether they had identity or residence papers proving their right to remain in the country. Many were not given a chance to let their children or other relatives know what had happened to them, or to collect belongings from their homes. Large numbers of those deposited at isolated border posts had spent decades, if not their entire lives, in the DR and no longer had any links with Haiti. Some were dark-skinned Dominicans, deported simply because they looked Haitian.

Despite the increased incidence of xenophobia, and having to live under the constant threat of deportation, Haitians continue to migrate to the DR in their thousands every year. They are lured by the prospect of employment - albeit highly exploitative, hard labour - in Dominican agriculture, construction and informal sectors. They are also pushed by the implosion of Haitian economic, social and political security. Although 29 per cent of the Dominican population lives below the poverty line, its economy nevertheless a good deal stronger than Haiti's, where GDP per person is nearly four times lower. In Haiti, 76 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line - 55 per cent in abject poverty (less than US$1 a day). Political turmoil, combined with sharp rise in violent crime before and since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in early 2004, has added impetus to the exodus of Haitians from their country.

Most Haitians have to cross the Dominican border illegally because the documents they need to enter legally are either too difficult or too expensive to access. This has prompted a burgeoning trade in illegal people-trafficking on the border, a practice that frequently ends in tragedy, as occurred in January 2006 when 25 Haitians suffocated in a truck. The very weak rule of law in the border area gives rise to a gamut of other abuses: for example, border authorities extorting money from and physically harassing Haitian market-sellers, most of them women. It is clear that both countries must work together to create a rule of law in the border area; they must also regulate and control the influx of people crossing the border in accordance with international law and the DR's own domestic and external obligations.

In most cases, the status of Haitian migrants and their descendents who already live the Dominican Republic remains ambiguous. The number of Haitian immigrants in the DR is estimated at around 500,000 or between and six per cent of the total population of 8 million; there may be as many as two million Dominico-Haitians in the DR. A large proportion of these have no documents. Some arrived in the DR illegally and never obtained identity documents from the Haitian authorities. Thousands more, born in the DR, have been denied Dominican birth certificates, despite the Dominican constitution clearly stating that those born on Dominican territory have the right to citizenship. And without documents - a birth certificate, an identity card, a passport or work-related migration papers - it is difficult and often impossible to access education or health services. Without documents, people are also far more vulnerable to abuse and discrimination in its various forms.

A new Dominican migration law introduced in 2004 has failed to address the problem of the "undocumented". On the contrary, it has arguably compounded the problem by defining the offspring of illegal Haitian migrants as being "in transit" and therefore exempt from the constitutional right to Dominican citizenship. Prior to the introduction of this law, no attempt was made to regularise the status of undocumented citizens who were already residing in the DR (for example, through a one-off amnesty). This means that hundreds of thousands of migrants and their descendants who have spent decades if not their whole lives - in the DR could be deported or targeted by xenophobic and racist elements at any moment.

In frustration at the intransigence of the Dominican authorities, local organisations defending the rights of Haitian migrants and their descendants have taken their grievances to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on a number of occasions. In October 2005, the court ruled that the denial of Dominican citizenship to those born in the DR (including the children of undocumented Haitian migrants) contravenes the DR's own constitution, and ordered the Dominican government to implement a series of measures to rectify the situation. The government has reacted defensively against this judgement and has not yet indicated whether it will comply. It is essential that the international community actively encourages the Dominican authorities to do so.

Christian Aid also calls on the UK government and the EU to engage the Dominican government over how to challenge xenophobia and racism, halt summary and arbitrary deportations, and protect the legal rights of Haitian migrants and their descendants. The need to address human rights abuses against Haitian migrants and Dominico- Haitians becomes evermore imperative as international players increase their aid to, and inward investment in, the DR. The EU, for example, is currently funding an ambitious cross-border development programme in the northern part of the island, which includes the rehabilitation of various roads and bridges between the two countries and a new marketplace at the busy border crossing of Ouanaminthe-Dajabon.

Key recommendations

The international community must also encourage the Dominican and Haitian governments to jointly develop a coherent cross-border migration policy based on respect for the human rights of migrants and their descendants, and the rights of the inhabitants of the border region.

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