Haitians In Dominican Republic Fear Deportation As Deadline Looms Wednesday June 17,2015

 

Hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent faced the risk of deportation from the Dominican Republic on Wednesday June 17,2015 as a deadline for enforcement of a new immigration law approached.

Dominican officials say anyone lacking identity documents or who has not registered for a so-called "regularization" program before the Wednesday June 17,2015 deadline could face deportation.

The Dominican government says the changes to its nationality and immigration laws aim to tackle illegal migration from neighboring Haiti. Human rights groups say the move is rooted in longstanding racism and xenophobia in the Dominican Republic towards darker-skinned Haitian

Over the last century an untold number of Haitians have crossed into the more prosperous Dominican Republic to escape political violence or seek a better life, many working as sugar cane cutters, house cleaners or babysitters

Human rights groups say the new law could impact hundreds of thousands of these migrants and a smaller number of Dominican-born people of Haitian descent who lost citizenship after a constitutional court ruling in 2013 that has faced international criticism.


Dominican President Danilo Medina has said there will be no mass deportations. But undocumented Haitian migrants can be deported within 48 hours of the deadline


Haitian sugar cane workers rally in front of the Haitian embassy demanding the Haitian passports needed to regularize their migration status in the Dominican Republic, in Santo Domingo on June 1, 2015