The Minister for Haitians Living Abroad (MHAVE), Olicier Pieriche, has condemned what he described as “discriminatory acts” committed against Haitian nationals living in the Bahamas.
Bahamas recently attended the Caricom meeting where member nations agreed to halt business with the Dominican Republic in protest at the DR enacting a National Foreigner Legalization Plan. The plan offers a free path for Haitians living in the Dominican Republic to legalize their status and subsequently apply for Dominican citizenship.
A report in Haiti Libre points out that Haitian migrants in the Bahamas, including pregnant women and children are being arrested and crammed into Carmichael, a migrant detention center, in inhumane conditions.
“If we have found the immigration policy in the Dominican Republic to be unjust and racist, the Bahamas applies the law much more severely, since it is not even a question of regularizing the migration status of our compatriots in an irregular situation,” Pieriche told Haiti Libre. “It must be said that the frequent arrival of boat people from Haiti only exacerbates an already difficult economic situation in the Bahamas”, he said, as reported in the media.
The new migration measures are being implemented in the Bahamas since November 2014 and establish that all foreigners living in the territory without residency documents should be repatriated to their country of origin. Pieriche stated that this means that children born to undocumented parents are also being deported with their parents.
http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13307-haiti-politic-the-mhave-condemns-the-measures-against-the-haitians-in-the-bahamas.html
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