Haitian immigrants are being deported from the Caribbean country and the government appears to target other people by their appearance.
U. S. officials in the Dominican Republic warn “darker-skinned” Americans that they are being dragged into the country’s crackdown on Haitian immigrants.
A lawyer for the U. S. Embassy in Santo Domingo suggests that the government use a person’s appearance as criteria to detain others suspected of being in the country illegally.
The Dominican Republic says it deported 43,900 migrants, mostly Haitians, between July and October in an operation it says is for national security amid growing unrest, gang crime and an internal fuel blockade on its only neighbor on the island of Hispaniola.
The deportations come with many young people sent to Haiti without their parents, UNICEF reported on CNN.
Several countries and human rights bodies have condemned the program of mass detentions and deportations, criticisms that the Dominican Republic says it “more than rejects. “
The U. S. Embassy’s warning came in a bulletin about “the continued application of Dominican migration” over the weekend.
“Dominican migration agents have carried out widespread operations to detain those they consider undocumented immigrants, that is, other people of Haitian descent,” he said.
“In some cases, the government has not respected the legal prestige of those other people in the Dominican Republic or their nationality. These movements can lead to increased interaction with the Dominican government, especially for dark-skinned U. S. citizens and U. S. citizens of African descent. .
It continues to warn about complaints of detainees “without the option to challenge their detention and without access to food or bathrooms, for days. “
In particular, the technique taken through U. S. officials was not used to help the U. S. UU. no happens to call for an end to the deportation program, as others have done, added Volker Türk, the U. N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The United States maintains its own program to deport Haitian immigrants, for which it has been heavily criticized.
In defense of its position on deportations, the Dominican Republic says there is “no evidence” of systemic human rights violations, as through the U. S. Embassy bulletin.
Its Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “The Dominican government may never have imagined that there would be such a harsh insinuation about our country, let alone from a best friend who has been accused of xenophobic and racist migrant remedy, adding portions of its own population.
Tensions between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which occupy a 390-kilometer (240-mile) border on the island of Hispaniola, have escalated since the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
Since then, deportations from the Dominican Republic have intensified and the country’s government has militarized its border, even initiating the structure of a border wall.
President Luis Abinader commented last week through U. N. human rights leader Turk “unacceptable and irresponsible. “
He said his country “has been more affected” by the constant migration from Haiti and “more supportive than any other country in the world. “
“You can’t ask anything more of the Dominican Republic. We will continue with deportations and next week we will reinforce them,” he said.
Additional reporting via The Associated Press