Dominican Republic expels, mistreats Haitians, activists say
DAJABON, Dominican Republic (AP) — Bien-Aimé St. Clair frowned as the stream of older Haitian migrants pushed past him. Accused of living in the Dominican Republic illegally, they knew they had no choice but to go back across the border to Haiti.
But St. Clair, 18, hesitated. He shouted at an immigration agent.
“Boss! Hey! I don’t know anyone there,” he yelled in Spanish, motioning toward Haiti as he stood on the frontier that the two countries share on the island of Hispaniola.
St. Clair was a child when his mother brought him to the Dominican Republic, and though his life has been hard -- his mom died when he was young, his father disappeared, and he was left alone to raise his disabled brother -- it’s the only life he has known.
And now, he was being forced to leave, like more than 31,000 people deported by the Dominican Republic to Haiti this year, more than 12,000 of them in just the past three months -- a huge spike, observers say. As the rest of the world closes its doors to Haitian migrants, the country that shares an island with Haiti also is cracking down in a way that human rights activists say hasn’t been seen in decades.
Read more: https://baytobaynews.com/stories/dominican-republic-expels-mistreats-haitians-activists-say,65454