Editorial
"A case that we who have served with greater or lesser intensity in diplomatic and consular posts in Haiti have experienced is that of Black Dominicans who are included in groups of Haitians deported from the Dominican Republic. This issue was already known to consuls in Belladere in the middle of the third decade of the last century." This is how Alberto E.
"A case that we who have served with greater or lesser intensity in diplomatic and consular posts in Haiti have experienced is that of Black Dominicans who are included in groups of Haitians deported from the Dominican Republic. This issue was already known to consuls in Belladere in the middle of the third decade of the last century." Thus wrote Alberto E.
Despradel Cabral, former Dominican ambassador to Haiti, in The Consulate of Belladere in Dominican-Haitian Relations 1931-1963 (2005:122). In 2008, the expert on forced migration, academic Matthew Gibney, asserted that recently there has been a global "deportation turn." However, on the island, cross-border deportations have been an important issue on the table for practically a century. The surge in deportations in 2022 left a total of 113,490 people deported to Haiti. According to official figures, this number could double in 2023. But people born on Dominican territory, with the right to Dominican nationality, are increasingly at risk of expulsion from their own country. In 2022, human rights defenders report having prevented at least 800 expulsions.
Mr. Police was not fortunate in preventing his banishment - twice. He is a Dominican of Haitian descent who was detained and expelled at the end of July. He was able to re-enter his country, but was detained and expelled once again. When trying to re-enter his country a second time, he benefited from the good offices of the UN system. After fifteen days of uncertainty, he crossed the border with the approval of Dominican authorities. It should be noted that it was necessary to make his Dominican birth certificate visible and to show that he is a beneficiary among the 749 people named by two presidential decrees, adhering to the implementation of Law 169-14. This occurs in a context in which the stripping of Dominican nationality, the result of Constitutional Court Ruling 168-13 ten years ago, has still not been fully resolved. OBMICA subscribes to the statement of civil society organizations taking stock and advocating for sustainable solutions (see page 3 of this bulletin). Full implementation of Law 169-14, partially remedying the statelessness caused by the Ruling, would be one step forward, combined, of course, with attention to the situation of those people born to foreigners who had the right to Dominican nationality under the Constitution in force when they were born, but who, by not applying to Law 169-14, currently lack any pathway to make effective their access to Dominican nationality.
Bridget Wooding