Dominican Republic: BOJNUAH condemns President Luis ABINADER's decision to deport 10,000 Haitians per week...

Pétion-Ville (Haiti). Saturday, October 5, 2024. The Youth Organization for the United Nations of Africa in Haiti-BOJNUAH takes note of and condemns in the strongest possible terms the decision of Dominican President Luis ABINADER, who has ordered the immediate execution of an operation aimed at repatriating up to 10,000 Haitians in an irregular migratory situation to Haiti each week. At a time when the Dominican Republic is hosting the 1st United Nations Tourism Summit for Africa and the Americas, to be held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, from October 2 to 5, 2024.

?The Dominican Republic, like the Republic of Haiti, has signed and ratified the Universal and Inter-American Conventions on Human Rights, and signing and ratifying these conventions constitutes an obligation. This new discriminatory decision by the Dominican authorities is a violation of the Dominican Republic's obligations under State Responsibility and international conventions.? It is a violation of articles 1, 2, 3, 6, 15, 22 and 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, of the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, and of their own Constitution.? According to various observers, racial discrimination against people of Haitian descent in the neighboring republic has been characterized as systematic. Since 2004, several measures adopted by the Dominican State have had the effect of placing obstacles in the way of Haitians acquiring and maintaining Dominican nationality.

Furthermore, His Excellency Mr. Amos CINCIR, Special Representative of BOJNUAH intends to highlight that on September 23, 2013, the racist and shameful ruling 168-13 of the Dominican Constitutional Court, which deprived more than 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent of the right to Dominican nationality, further institutionalizing racial discrimination against them. These decisions represent a departure from international legal standards and a flagrant violation of the laws of the Dominican Republic.? According to data collected by the Groupe aux rapatriés et réfugiés-GARR, from July 2015 to September 14, 2017, more than 224,628 people were forced to cross the Haitian-Dominican border, of whom 130,992 returned spontaneously and 93,636 repatriated.

As for PANAFRICAN and diplomat Harold Robinson DAVIS, a Costa Rican national and former civil servant who served at the United Nations for over 30 years, he expressed his disappointment at the decision of African governments to send high-level tourist delegations to the Dominican Republic. As a PANAFRICAN activist and member of the Latin American and African diaspora, he expressed his dismay at the presence of such high-level African and Americas delegations in the Dominican Republic in these difficult times when the Dominican authorities are inflicting ill-treatment on Haitians and Dominican citizens of Haitian descent. He believes that while this event is part of the search for closer economic ties between the two regions, the choice of venue is appalling, as the Dominican Republic has always discriminated against Haitians because they are Black.

?Furthermore, BOJNUAH firmly believes that State Responsibility also obliges the Republic of Haiti to assist its nationals in an irregular situation on foreign soil, and to take the necessary and appropriate measures to resolve the Republic's migration problems once and for all. Political stability, security, economic growth and job creation are all part of the solution, as is a certain idea of the Republic of Haiti, its mission, role and place in the world. It is the responsibility of the Republic of Haiti and its political and economic leaders to offer welfare options to Haitian citizens, so that illegal or legal immigration is not the first choice of citizens, young and old, and to reintegrate our deportees from neighboring republics and other parts of the world.

?Represented in Haiti since May 2017, the Office of the United Nations Youth Organization of Africa in Haiti-BOJNUAH, is a decentralized structure of the Permanent Office of the United Nations Youth Organization of Africa-OJNUA, headquartered in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (West Africa). Several countries on the African continent are already members, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea Conakry, Cameroon, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Benin, C?te d'Ivoire, Angola and Mali, as well as other black communities around the world, including Haiti.

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Communication Office

Biwo Oganizasyon Jènn Nasyonzini Afrik nan Peyi Ayiti | Office of the Youth Organization for the United Nations of Africa in Haiti

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