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Haiti border crisis grows as Dominican Republic expels 'migrants' - IceWizard - 09-19-2015
Sat Sep 19, 2015 | 7:15 AM EDT
By Peter Granitz
ANSE-Ã -PITRE, Haiti (Reuters) -
Every morning, Gustavo Adolfo wakes up in a migrant shelter in Haiti, treks across a field of burnt brush where men make charcoal, and crosses a river into the Dominican Republic, a country he left in fear three months ago.
With a machete strapped to his waist, Adolfo is
joined by others each day in a desperate effort
to make a living.
They cross the border into the wealthier Dominican Republic under constant threat of arrest or expulsion.
"I can make 200 pesos ($4.50) a day working in the fields there," said the middle-aged Haitian as he swatted away a swarm of mosquitoes.
Dominican officials last month began implementing a controversial immigration
program targeting Haitian migrants and
Dominican-born people of Haitian descent.
The program centers on round-ups and
deportations that have triggered concerns
about a slow-growing border migration crisis in
the poorest country in the Americas.
So far about 1,500 people have been deported
at a pace of 50 to 100 per day, according to
relief officials with access to records supplied
by the Dominican government.
The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the number of deportees.
Thousands more have fled the Dominican
Republic out of fear of arrest or harassment,
scared by neighbors, bosses, coworkers and
police or immigration officials. More than 27 percent of those crossing into Haiti say they were born in the Dominican Republic, according to Amnesty International.
But they lack documents to prove residency or
citizenship, and many are undocumented
immigrants who say they have lived most of their lives on the Dominican side of the border.
The Dominican Republic, which has a
population of about 10 million, has long
complained of illegal migration of Haitians, even as it benefits from a steady source of cheap labor for construction, agriculture and domestic work.
The Dominican government declined repeated
requests for comment on its immigration
crackdown. But the issue touches a centuries-
old xenophobic nerve in the country, stemming
from its occupation by Haiti in the early 19th
century.
Four informal settlements have sprung up in
southern Haiti for people affected by the deportations. They now house between 2,500 and 3,000 people, according to the Jesuit Refugee Service.
The Haitian government began a relocation
program at one settlement camp, Tête à l’Eau,
last month. But the program, including $30 in
assistance for deportees, was suspended due
to a lack of funds, according to Frantz Pierre-
Louis, a top regional Haitian government representative.
A United Nations human rights official in Haiti,
Gustavo Gallón, this week urged the
government to establish health facilities and
deliver drinking water to the camps.
"The conditions are horrible there, I don't know
how people are living," he said. The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti is
seeking $6.9 million in emergency assistance
for the country but it is unclear how much of it
would be used to improve conditions in the
migrant camps.
LOSING HOPE
Camp residents complain they lack basic
essentials and receive little or no help from the
Haitian government.
"People come all the time and take our
information but they never give us anything! We need food," yelled Manuel Amadice, a rail-thin man in his 50s wearing worn flip-flops.
Amadice left Haiti as a child but said he lacked
the required documents to apply for residency
in his adopted homeland.
The migrant crisis stems from a 2013
constitutional change that stripped citizenship
away from the Dominican-born children of
foreign parents - mostly of Haitian origin.
The ruling was applied retroactively to 1929,
sparking an international outcry that it would leave thousands stateless.
Under a separate law all "migrants" were
required to apply for temporary residency by
deadline of June 17, or face deportation.
Dominican officials have said 78,000 out of
289,000 applicants for residency were denied.
It remains unclear how many of those may face expulsion.
"I was born in the Dominican Republic and my
mom died when I was 7. I never had a birth
certificate," said Pablito Felix Ramirez, a
resident of one settlement camp called Parc
Cadeau.
Ramirez, 24, who fixes motorcycles at his
cardboard and stick shack, said he is legally
Dominican, but the Dominican government sees him as Haitian.
He has no family in Haiti and added that he had been unable to get a Haitian identity card or birth certificate, making him a man without a
country.
"Wherever I can make 50 pesos ($1), I'm
happy," Ramirez said.
(Editing by David Adams and Tom Brown)