The Dominican Republic said it “categorically rejects” the denunciation of its repression against Haitian migrants from several developing countries and human rights agencies.
The Dominican government has stepped up border surveillance and deportations of Haitians, saying such moves are for national security amid growing unrest in the neighboring country due to a blockade of combustible materials by gangs and a cholera outbreak.
Authorities say they deported 43,900 immigrants, mostly Haitians, between July and October. In September and October alone, the number of evictions jumped to around 50 in line with the hundred.
The government’s moves have provoked sharp complaints in weeks from Haiti, the U. N. human rights leader and the United States.
On Saturday, the U. S. Embassy in the capital of Santo Domingo sent a warning to the Dominican immigration government that they “have carried out widespread operations” to detain a giant component of Haitian immigrants they say are in the country illegally.
“There are reports that detainees are held in overcrowded detention centers, with no opportunity to challenge their detention and without access to food or toilets, for days, before being released or deported to Haiti,” the embassy wrote.
The embassy also warned that government moves may pose a challenge to dark-skinned Americans and African Americans traveling to the Dominican Republic.
However, unlike the UN and Haiti, the U. S. UU. no has explicitly called on the country to avoid deportations. President Joe Biden’s administration has defended its own practice of deporting and deporting Haitian migrants arriving at its southern border, despite strong denunciations from human rights organizations. .
The Dominican Foreign Ministry responded to the complaint on Sunday, saying the U. S. government had “no evidence” of any systematic human rights abuse. He also denounced what he called the lack of foreigners to manage migration from Haiti.
“The Dominican government may never have imagined that there would be such a harsh insinuation about our country,” the ministry wrote, “let alone a best friend who has been accused of remedying xenophobic and racist migrants, adding in parts of its territory. “own population”.
Tensions fueled by migration have been simmering for years between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which form a 390-kilometer (240-mile) border on the island of Hispaniola. But they have deepened since the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, which threw an already crisis-ridden Haiti into chaos.
Since then, deportations from the Dominican Republic have multiplied and the country’s government has militarized its border, even initiating the structure of a border wall.
Last week, President Luis Abinader called the recent call through the UN human rights leader to end evictions “unacceptable and irresponsible. “in the world. “
“You can’t ask anything more of the Dominican Republic. . . We will continue with the deportations and next week we will reinforce them,” he said.
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