Strong Condemnation of Dominican Republic’s Plans to Massively Deport Haitian Migrants

We, the undersigned civil society organizations and academic institutions and networks working on migration, displacement, and human rights in the Americas strongly condemn the Dominican Republic’s plans to deport an estimated 10,000 Haitian migrants daily to unsafe conditions in Haiti. Haiti is in no condition to absorb deported Haitians. The country is facing an out-of-control security and humanitarian crisis. The Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti is understaGed, underfunded and resource poor. It is not a peacekeeping operation, as such it cannot detain this level of violence and destruction. In Haiti there is a history of foreign security forces generating problems and committing abuses in the country.

Sending Haitians back involuntarily is inhuman and cruel. Violent gangs have taken over diGerent areas forcing people to flee to safety and making it impossible for persons to work and meet their basic needs. Over 450 businesses and homes have faced destruction due to fires set by the gangs. An estimated “1,379 people were killed or injured and another 428 were kidnapped between April 1 and June 30, 2024,” according to the United Nations Integrated OGice in Haiti. The situation is particularly dire for women, girls and pregnant women. The United Nations OGice for the Coordination of Humanitarian AGairs (OCHA) reported a 49% increase in gender-based violence in 2023.

According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)’s Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) Haiti is suGering a hunger emergency. An estimated 5.4 million people are unable to feed themselves and their families daily. Aside from a security crisis that began after the assassination of President in October 2021, WFP reports that two million Haitians are “facing extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition and high disease levels.” The number of internally displaced has shot up in the past six months to an estimated 700,000. These IDPs live in makeshift shelters in about 100 sites in Port Aux Prince. Of these, an estimated 6,000 are experiencing “catastrophic levels of food insecurity due to “food shortages, acute malnutrition and high levels of disease.” These IDPs are “facing starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels.”

Massively deporting Haitians adds insult to injury when there exists systemic racism, xenophobia and rejection of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent. Many Dominicans of Haitian descent have lost their nationality and face precarious circumstances. Their social leaders are under attack including death threats and social media harassment by nationalists who wish to rid the country of Haitians. Haitian migrants who labor in the country are often mistreated and abused. The international community must condemn this plan and urge that the rights of Haitian migrants, laborers and Dominicans of Haitian descent are respected immediately.

The following organizations sign this statement:

Afrolatino Development Fund – USA Afroresistencia -USA Agrupación Xango por la Inclusion y la Justicia Social – Argentina Articulação Brasileira de Lésbicas (ABL) – Brazil Asociación Civil ABAJO FRONTERAS – Argentina Asociación Comunidades Construyendo Paz en Colombia (Conpazcol) – Colombia Asociación Nacional de Afrocolombianos Desplazados (AFRODES) – Colombia Asociación Tribal Afrodescendiente del Caribe Sur Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) – Argentina Center for Africa and African Diaspora Advancement (CEADA) -USA Colombia Acuerdo de Paz NGO -USA Comité Afro Contra La Discriminación y Xenofobia – Colombia Confederação Nacional dos Servidores Públicos Municipais do Brasil (CONFETAM) – Brazil Consejo Laboral Afrocolombiano (CLAF) – Colombia – Consejo Nacional de Paz Afrocolombiano (CONPA) – Colombia Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES) – Colombia Corporación Justicia y Dignidad – Colombia Emancipación Comunidad Cristiana Afro Federación Ecuatoriana de Trabajadores Municipales y Provinciales (FETMYP) – Ecuador Federación Internacional de Medios Alternativos de Colombia (FIMACOL) – Colombia Fica Amazonia – Colombia Foro Tribal Afrodescendiente de Costa Rica – Costa Rica Fundación Código Humano -Republica Dominicana Fundación Conclave Investigativo de las Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales – Chile Fundación Deportiva del Pacífico Sur (FUNDEPACS) – Colombia Fundación para el Desarrollo y Reivindicación Etno-Cultural de las Comunidades Afrodescendientes (Fundación Drecca) -Colombia Fundación Vida Grupo Ecológico Verde -USA Instituto de Estudios Sociales y Culturales Pensar – Pontificia Universidad Javeriana – Colombia International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) – Regional Instituto Madre Bernarda – IMABE – Brazil – La Nueva Prensa – Colombia Madre de los Falsos Positivos (MAFAPO) – Colombia Maestría en Estudios Críticos de las Migraciones Contemporáneas – Pontificia Universidad Javeriana – Colombia Movimiento Federalista Panafricano Capítulo Colombia – Colombia – Movimiento Nacional Cimarrón – Colombia Movimiento Nacional de Madres y Mujeres por La Paz – Colombia Movimiento Social Paro Cívico “Para Vivir con Dignidad y en Paz en el Territorio” – Colombia Movimiento sociocultural de trabajo humanitario y ambiental (MOSCTHA) – Republica Dominicana National Lawyers Guild-Task Force of the Americas – USA Organización Comunidad Haitiana en Chile (CHC) – Chile Portland Central America Solidarity Committee (PCASC) – USA Proceso de las Comunidades Negras (PCN) – Colombia Programa de Investigación y Extensión sobre Afrodescendencia y Estudios Afrodiasporicos (UNIAFRO IDAES UNSAM) – Argentina Proyecto Cultural Sur PCSur Internacional Capítulo Colombia – Colombia Red Internacional Multicultural de Lideres en Acción (RIMLA) -USA Research Center for International Development Si Somos Identidad-Fundación Afrodescendiente por las Diversidades Sociales y Sexuales – Colombia Sociedad de Socorros Mutuos “Unión Caboverdeana” – Argentina Soulsapaz -USA Todos con Mandela – Argentina The Chair in Forced Migration, Inclusion and Human Rights of the University of Guadalajara – Mexico – Tribunal Internacional de Conciencia de los Pueblos en Movimiento -Mexico Washington Obice on Latin America (WOLA) – USA Witness at the Border/Testigos en la Frontera -USA

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