International Migrants Day: A Date for Reflection

This is because it was on that day in 1990 that the United Nations General Assembly approved the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Since December 2000, that date has been commemorated every year as International Migrants Day.

On this December 18, OBMICA marks the date by launching a video entitled The Haitian-Dominican Border: Past and Present (click here to watch the video), focused on some of the activities carried out on the border in October 2017, 80 years after the massacre of Haitians and Dominico-Haitians in this border strip. Our lens focuses on this situation of fraternal exchange and cross-border trade that has mostly characterized the relations of the inhabitants on either side of this dividing line between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We believe that small actions should be taken to implement a legislative framework that protects the rights of the people who routinely cross the border to participate in the twice-weekly markets.

For this reason, we take advantage of this significant date to urge the Dominican and Haitian authorities to operationalize the figure of the "border inhabitant," set out in the Dominican Migration Law of 2004 and in its subsequent 2011 regulations. Accordingly, the competent Dominican authorities are urged to:

In negotiations with Haiti, possibly mediated by the Dominican-Haitian Binational Mixed Commission, operationalize the figure of the border inhabitant in order to facilitate free movement, organize circular migration flows at the border, and keep count of them.

In this way, the women and men living in the contact zone of the border could enjoy greater dignity and greater respect in their daily crossings.