Mass expulsion of Haitians from DR causes clashes, refuel racial tensions
Ouanaminthe residents vow to keep fighting against the mistreatment of Haitians by Dominicans
PORT-AU-PRINCE — It took Jeannot 25 years to build a life in the Dominican Republic and just one night for it all to disappear, leaving him and his family in Haiti, homeless in the country he left nearly three decades prior.
Jeannot, a pseudonym The Haitian Times is using to protect the man’s identity, recounted how Dominican authorities came into his home in Las Americas, an area not too far from the capital Santo Domingo. That night, May 19, Jeannot, his pregnant wife and their four children were in the house he had bought land years ago to build on when they heard strange noises.
“We were home in bed when cars surrounded the house,” Jeannot, 42 years old, said. “There was a dog at the entrance of the house. They killed it. They barged into the house, beat and slapped us, handcuffed us, then put us in a car.”
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Protesters insist on respect for humans, the law
At the Ouanaminthe-Dajabon bridge – one of the official border crossings – Haitian residents began lashing out at the Dominican border authorities in recent weeks. Moved by the plight of fellow Haitians being driven into their city, the residents threw rocks and other items at authorities in protest against the mistreatment of Haitians.
But tensions reached a peak Nov. 21. That day, residents closed the border gate and welded it, keeping the movement of all people and goods in the process and setting off tension within Haiti’s government, which later opened the gate.
Two days later, Wideline Pierre, the northeastern departmental director of the Ministry of the Environment, resigned from her position for being a principal participant in the closing of the gate. Pierre said in a letter dated Nov. 23 that such mistreatment conflicts with her civic commitment in the social and political struggle toward the improvement of [our] society.
Many of the protesters lamented that the mass expulsion is the latest in a long series of non-stop deportations and repatriations that began in earnest in 2021. Their main objection is that the movement of people is taking place without respect for existing laws regulating migration and relations between the two countries.
