Dominican Republic - Haiti Observer Blog

Mysterious contaminated wheat flour from Dominican Republic. The ministers of trade and industry, public health, and agriculture issued a statement regarding imported flour sent by the Dominican Republic to Haiti. Their concern focuses on the very high levels of potassium bromate and azodicarbonamide that have been detected, injurious to humans. The ministries took immediate action, ordering the wheat flour supply off the market. It is deemed not acceptable for human consumption by sanitary and phytosanitary standards by the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulators. Further importations of the contaminated wheat flour will be subject to quarantine, until it is determined the shipment is in compliance with WTO regulatory standards.

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The Federación Nacional de Transporte Dominicano (National Federation of Transport of Dominican Republic) has suspended all of its traffic to Haiti from Monday, August 3, 2015, due to the absence of security coverage for its drivers and goods by the Haitian authority. On last Saturday, July 25th, around 11:00 pm, 60 trucks belonging to the Association of owners and drivers of Salina were attacked by a mob while carrying gypsum from "Mine de la Lista" (Cabral) to the cement plant Cina, located in the Haitian community of Cabaret (on the road of Gonaïves). A group of violent individuals threw stones and various hard objects that caused heavy damage to the trucks and injured their drivers. The incident occurred inside the cement factory in the presence of the Haitian police who did nothing to prevent the mob damaging the trucks.

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The Dominican Republic doesn't want them. Now, according to the latest news, neither does Haiti. The Haitian Foreign Minister Lener Renauld announced that his country will not receive any immigrants who are not Haitians. This decision was taken following to counter the decision of the Dominican Republic to deport both Haitian nationals as well as some Dominicans with root to Haiti.

The Haitian government is currently in what some would call a diplomatic war with its neighbor over the immigration issue. Haitian Foreign Minister Lener Renauld had denounced some of the decisions adopted by the Dominican government, which did not include a protocol for an orderly repatriation of undocumented migrants.

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A Haitian man living in the Dominican Republic was found stabbed to death near the city of Hatillo Palma along the side of the road

Police has been investigating this death to determine if it is related to a protest taking place earlier in that same location against Haitian migrants in the area. Dominicans had been protesting an alleged rape to a local woman for which the demonstrators accused three Haitian migrants for.

According to Dominican Police, six people had been detained for questioning about the death of the Haitian immigrant

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Dominican Republic calls for Apology from Haiti over Deportation Issue. Tensions between Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR) continue to heighten over the immigration crisis the DR started with its Constitutional Court ruling in 2013: Haitian migrants, who came to work the sugar plantations should now be deported. This ruling also extends to their Dominican-born children who have no claims on their natural birthright, in defiance of international law.

The DR, on the defensive lately, due to a backlash from the international community over forced deportations has made a half-hearted effort to undo some of the harm against Haitian migrants and their Dominican-born children. The DR government began a National Regularization program to register migrants for citizenship status. But the program has been badly administered, causing applicants to fall through the cracks.

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Ma to Initiate Conflict Resolution Talks between DR and Haiti. President Ma Ying-jeou, a strong ally of both the Dominican Republic (DR) and Haiti, has offered to act as a negotiator in the conflict surrounding the immigration issue between the two Caribbean nations, who share the island of Hispaniola.

Ma wants to help the DR and Haiti reach a resolution regarding Haitian migrants in the DR and their descendants being forced out of the country due to a Constitutional Court ruling that considers the undocumented aliens transients. Furthermore, their descendants born in the DR have lost their automatic birthright. The backlash from the international community has placed the DR on the defensive. Denying the planned mass deportations were a form of ethnic cleansing, it now says there will be no mass deportations.

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DR's Threat of Deportations causes Self-Deportations of Haitian Migrants

The Dominican Republic (DR), who has started to cave from the pressure put on it by the international community on the matter of mass deportations, has no plans to follow through on its ethnic cleansing of Haitian migrants and their descendants, born in the DR. But the explicit threat of deportations has caused thousands of Haitian illegals to leave the country and cross over to Haiti.

Since the expiration date of June 17th passed, and Haitian migrants can no longer apply for citizenship status, fear and anxiety dog their every waking moment. Although the DR seems to be complying with international law regarding mass deportations, it has managed to effect self-deportations under threats. They accomplished this by saying they would forcibly remove migrants, displaying buses dedicated to moving them out of the country.

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The Dominican Republic Back Peddles on Deportations due to International Pressure

The Dominican Republic (DR) has been forced to put a halt to deportations of Dominican-born Haitians and their migrant parents because of pressure from the international community (IC). A Constitutional Court ruling in 2013 no longer recognizes those of Haitian descent, and their right to citizenship, a violation of international law.

Bowing to the pressure the IC has placed on the DR government, its President, Danilo Medina, issued a decree to permit undocumented migrants and their descendants to apply for citizenship under the National Regularization initiative (NR). The program though has been badly administered, and has made applying to it a difficult process. By the program deadline of June 17th just 290,000 out of approximately 450,000 people submitted the necessary documents. What is worse, Haitian migrants, who cannot obtain legitimate documentation to get citizenship status, also cannot get their children documented either.

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On Thursday, June 18, during a press conference, Emmanuel Menard, the Director General of the National Old Age Insurance Office (ONA) has announced the creation of a solidarity fund (FONDSONA) valuing over 2 million gourdes for the expelled Haitians. The fund has been collected through voluntary contribution from the salaries of their employees to assist the repatriated Haitians from the Dominic Republic. The Director General of ONA has said he is proud of his employees' generous gesture and hopes other organizations to follow their steps. The Group "Haïti Chérie" (Dear Haiti), an entity in the Haitian private sector, has also announced the creation of a civic solidarity fund within the framework of upcoming repatriations of Haitian citizens. The fund initially consists an amount of one million gourdes. Moreover, this group has invited all national authorities to take necessary effective measures to improve the investment climate in the country.

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If you expected the technical mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) to come hard on the Dominicans for the way in which they treat our Haitian brothers or Dominicans of Haitian descent, you will not be happy with their recommendations. More dialogues it is.

As you may know, a technical mission of the OAS was formed to look into the current immigration problem between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. After visiting both countries and talking to officials as well as some of the victims of the massive deportation at the border, the team concluded that the only solution to the matter is more dialogue between Haiti and the Dominican republic.

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