Condemnation of President Abinader's mass deportation campaign

President Abinader has reacted violently to the international outcry he has received for his massive human rights violations against the Haitian immigrant community. The president has threatened to increase the pace of deportations of Haitians and has issued a dangerous decree authorizing the expulsion of thousands of people who have lived for decades in bateyes (sugarcane plantation settlements) on state-owned land. We are facing a very dangerous campaign of mass deportations that could turn into a campaign of ethnic cleansing if Dominican society does not demonstrate democratic resolve and put a stop to this government.

We reject these threats and the resurgence of racist persecution against Haitian immigrants, Dominicans of Haitian descent, and Black Dominicans. We reiterate that approximately two hundred thousand Dominicans of Haitian descent remain stateless as a result of ruling 168-13, and that thousands of Haitians who have lived and worked in the country for decades lack legal residency due to a deliberate policy of non-regularization of immigration implemented by successive governments.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement on November 3 calling on all states to suspend the forced return of Haitians to their country, given the ongoing humanitarian crisis. UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi explained that the mass expulsions of refugees and arbitrary detentions are violations of international treaties and agreements on the right to asylum.

Prior to this, on October 28, U.S. official Uzra Zeya, during a visit to the Dominican Republic, requested that the government take measures against human trafficking and specifically recommended taking steps to protect Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent from trafficking. The involvement of Dominican military and police officers in the human trafficking business is widely documented. On November 10, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, reiterated in a brief statement his call to halt deportations to Haiti, mentioning the Dominican government. The statement calls for “increased efforts to prevent xenophobia, discrimination, and related forms of intolerance based on national, racial, or ethnic origin, or immigration status.”

From the National Palace, Abinader responded that he considered the UN representative's statement "unacceptable and irresponsible," and threatened not only to maintain the current rate of deportations but to increase it. Contradictorily, he said that the Dominican State "has been far more supportive than any other country in the world," and repeated the old argument that Haitian immigrants are an economic burden. In practice, the Abinader administration does not recognize the validity of human rights treaties, and specifically the right to asylum.

Raising the stakes, Abinader issued Decree 668-22 on November 11, which, citing national security reasons, authorizes and orders the mass expulsion of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent who have lived for decades in bateyes (sugarcane plantation settlements) in sugarcane-growing areas that are state-owned land. In addition to denying pensions to these veteran sugarcane workers, the Abinader administration is now directly threatening to carry out ethnic cleansing on a scale not seen since 1937. Those expelled would be permanently barred from returning to Dominican territory.

Given that the current legal framework already allows for the punishment of crimes against property and that Decree 668-22 does not contribute anything new in this regard, it is evident that it is a fundamentally political document, which enables the eviction of the bateyes that exist on lands of the State and private sugar companies.

Beyond our criticisms of the UN's role in Haiti, especially regarding the MINUSTAH military occupation between 2004 and 2017, we are now witnessing an alarming escalation of the Dominican government's racist and xenophobic policies. Between January and September of this year, the Dominican government carried out more than 85 expulsions of Haitians, according to official figures. The Dominican government is conducting mass expulsions, including the arbitrary detention of pregnant women and infants without the company of their parents or legal guardians. The arbitrary detention of Dominicans of Haitian descent during immigration operations has been documented.

The General Directorate of Migration (DGM) violates the Constitution, which stipulates that agents making any arrest must identify themselves to the detainees. Raids on homes without a warrant are also common. Furthermore, all binational migration protocols are violated, including the expulsion of people through unofficial border crossings, on days and at times outside of established procedures, among other violations. Added to this is the daily extortion suffered by immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent at the hands of police and immigration agents, detention in unsanitary facilities, overcrowding on DGM buses, and the theft of cell phones and other belongings. In some cases, torture and murder have been committed by police and immigration agents during these operations.

The persecution of Black people by the Abinader administration is an expression of state terrorism against the immigrant community and Dominicans of Haitian descent who were stripped of their nationality by ruling 168-13. Abinader has been conducting an intense propaganda campaign portraying the Haitian immigrant community as an economic burden, despite knowing that it is a hardworking community that makes enormous contributions to the Dominican economy and society. Agriculture, tourism, and construction are some of the industries that rely on the super-exploitation of the Haitian working class. The infrastructure projects built by this administration also benefit from Haitian labor; even the border wall, which is useless for stopping migration but very useful ideologically, is being built by Haitian workers.

This authoritarian, anti-democratic policy, which targets the most vulnerable sectors of the population to appease the far right, far from demonstrating strength, is a symptom of weakness. While the far right is calling for a boycott of the national census and the president is unable to provide a public response, he prefers to appear tough and “patriotic” before human rights organizations, revealing himself to be as anti-Haitian as the anti-vaccine, anti-abortion, and anti-census right wing, or as xenophobic as the Duartian Institute, a state institution that leads neo-fascist marches.

The recognition of refugee status for a group of people does not threaten the sovereignty of the Dominican Republic or any other country. In recent years, millions of Venezuelan, Syrian, and Ukrainian refugees have left their countries without any mergers or territorial cessions. It is unacceptable for public policy to be based on racist conspiracy theories and neo-Trujilloist ideologies.

We call on all organizations that consider themselves democratic, anti-racist, feminist, and human rights organizations in the Americas and the Caribbean to strongly condemn the increasingly authoritarian and human rights-violating policies of the Dominican government, especially the mass deportations and Decree 668-22.

Down with Decree 668-22!

Haitian lives matter!

No apartheid or ethnic cleansing in the Dominican Republic!

Endorsement of the CLACSO Steering Committee

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