Haitianization of the Dominican Republic vs Dominicanization of Haiti; Smith Augustin is new hope

Come 7 October 2024, former Haitian ambassador to the Dominican Republic Smith Augustin will be sworn in as the leader of Haiti’s Presidential Transitional Council. He takes over from Edgar LeBlanc whose speech at the UN General Assembly Debate became viral not for his call for solidarity and historic restitution, but for drinking water from a pitcher.

Augustin will lead from 7 October 2024 to 7 March 2025. Augustin is a sociologist and is the representative of the political groups RED/EDE and Compromis Historique. The EDE-RED/Compromis Historique is a political coalition reportedly led by former Haitian prime minister Claude Joseph, who is known to be vehemently anti-Dominican Republic.

Yet, readings of Augustin’s past statements to the press, and his actions when serving as ambassador in the Dominican Republic, give hope he could instead be a breath for change in the Haitian present going-no-where-situation. Augustin has been blunt in saying that the powers that control business in Haiti are behind the stagnation of economic and social development. He has not adopted the usual “blame Dominicans for not doing more, blame Dominicans for racism” traditional position of Haitian government officials. From his track record, he does not support the current Haitian government’s priority call for international historic restitution for events that happened three centuries ago.

When Augustin was ambassador of the Dominican Republic from 2020 to 2022, he practically lost his job when he acknowledged that the migration authorities in the DR were having a hard time regularizing Haitians because the Haitian authorities were not issuing the needed paperwork. He on numerous occasions sided with the Dominican authorities on contentious issues. On many times, he spoke up acknowledging the heavy burden Dominican taxpayers have taken on to provide social services for Haitians. He was recalled back to Haiti.

As a philosophy graduate of INTEC university in Santo Domingo, during his term as ambassador in the DR, he worked tirelessly to defend the rights of Haitians but he never lost sight of the importance of strengthening diplomatic relations between the two states. During his term, he was a strong advocate for more Haitians getting visas to study in local universities where they were allowed the privilege of paying low tuition.

By his statements to the press, Augustin is a realist and an advocate that an international mission is not going to change things in Haiti. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is again advocating for a UN peacekeeping mission. Fully-funded UN missions (Minustah and Minujusth) were in Haiti from 2004-2017 and 2017-2019) and they just led to cholera and did little to stop the gradual establishment of criminal gang controls and their importing of US-originated firearms.

Augustin says change has to come from within Haiti. Haitian diplomacy and international pressures have turned the DR into the escape valve for the situation in Haiti, with a steady flow of thousands of migrants to the Dominican Republic across the lightly patrolled 400 km border and the Dominican Republic. On market days thousands cross. No one checks who goes back. The DR has picked up the tab and is paying for around 40,000 Haitian births a year and 200,000 Haitian students in public schools.

The Dominican government spends billions to ensure minimal levels of security under the threat of contraband, drug trafficking, arms trafficking and criminal gangs that prevail in Haiti. The Dominican government and population are aware the escalating social and security threats mean the gradual Haitianization of the Dominican Republic, and not in a good sense. President Luis Abinader has just named the director of the Armed Forces intelligence branch C5i as director of the Migration Agency.

The Dominican Republic and Haiti have this very short window from 7 October 2024 to 25 March 2025 with Smith Augustin in the presidency of the Presidential Transition Council. He will be working with the umpire against him, as Acting Prime Minister Garry Conille and his Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy are strong advocates of the blame-everyone-except-Haiti and historic-restitutions stands. When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Haiti on 5 September 2024, he did not hold a press conference with Conille. This despite the US being the financier of the Haiti stabilization mission. On the same day he flew to Santo Domingo and on 6 September held a press conference with President Luis Abinader.

The human right to an identity
One of the most basic of human rights in today’s world is having an identity. Haitians have been denied this right in their own country. The last population census in Haiti was in 2003. Of an estimated 12 million people living in Haiti as of 2023, the OAS says 4.4 million are said to have a Carte Identification Nacionale (CIN), the result of an effort funded by the OAS-Japan/USAID from 2019 to 2023. The control of gangs in Haiti has slowed this civil registration process.

The Haitian estimated population number does not take into consideration the hundreds of thousands who have migrated to the Dominican Republic, most without passports or ID documents. For these, it has been a nightmare to get the needed paperwork from Haiti to regularize their status here. While it is normal for a person to not have a legal identity in Haiti, in the DR it is crucial for accessing services such as regularizing their stay, banking, secondary and university education.

While most of the Haitian population is still undocumented, ideally efforts will step up in that country to legalize more people in Haiti as elections are on the board to be held in November 2025. Only people with IDs can vote.

In the Dominican Republic, Haiti could open civil registry offices in different cities to enable Haitians to get their IDs and passports. The same way Dominicans can get their IDs and passports in Dominican offices abroad.

Decades ago, when the DR took on biometric identification, the country offered to donate the old civil registry equipment to Haiti. The Haitian government at the time rejected the donation of the ID system. Eventually, the OAS/USAID donated the project for the installation of a biometric identification system.

Once again, the Dominican Republic’s Central Electoral Board (JCE) is readying to upgrade the country’s civil registry document with a major overhaul requiring new equipment. Augustin might just have enough time to open talks and receive the used equipment to fast-track opening offices in the Dominican Republic to tie into the Haitian National Identification Office (ONI) and provide IDs for Haitians in the DR. Take note when Augustin was ambassador in the Dominican Republic, he worked hard to expand the Haitian consulate services in different Dominican cities to legalize Haitians.

Enabling Haitians to access civil registry in the Dominican Republic would be a major plus for Haitian expats getting their legal identity. There is a poll held in the DR (2017) that says there are 500,000 Haitians here. Others say the total is more likely to be over 2 million Haitians living here, many commuting regularly. A large number of these are here illegally or/and are undocumented. The National Statistics Office (ONE) acknowledged it was difficult to get a tally on Haitians living here for the 2021 National Census. Most Haitians are undocumented and were not available to answer to the pollsters.

Another key area is public health. Haitians just cross the border for free health services, practically non-existent in Haiti. Take note that Haiti is a country where there is no birth control. The relatively easy crossing of the border to the Dominican Republic enables people to receive free birthing services at a Dominican public hospital. Dominican families have two children because that is what they can afford. Haitians regularly have 5+. Hospital emergency rooms are filled with Haitians.

Like it or not, demographics calls the shots. Friendship, compassion or RD$5,000 is said to be enough to buy the fatherhood and identity of a Dominican man, enough to regularize the status of an unidentified child or even adult. And there are hundreds of thousands. No DNA test is required. It is but a matter of time. Some people warn this reality is a ticking time-bomb, threatening the Dominican Republic as the country we know.

Augustin is remembered as a man of positive actions during his two-year term as ambassador. He backed the nine points the late President Jovenel Moise agreed upon when President Luis Abinader began his government in August 2020. It might be time to dust off that checklist to start working in favor of the Haitian people, not the tiny groups that control Haiti from abroad or within, nor those who have thrown up their arms believing the situation is hopeless.

Augustin is aware that the Dominican Republic has been the Haitian people’s biggest supporter. Instead of the Haitianization of the Dominican Republic, his short term as president of the Presidential Transition Council could be a time to kickstart the Dominicanization of Haiti. The Dominicanization of Haiti is to take steps towards progress and development, working with public-private alliances.

The next two steps: Open talks with the JCE for the donation of equipment for the Haitian ID system and coordination with the ONI in Haiti to identify Haitians and enable more Haitians living here that qualify by the Migration Law 285-04 to take steps here to regularize their status. And dust off the nine points of the Jovenel Moise checklist to get back in sync.

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Haitianization of the Dominican Republic vs Dominicanization of Haiti; Smith Augustin is new hope