(18 Mar 2024)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dajabon, Dominican Republic - 18 March 2024
1. Deported Haitians locked at back of truck
2. Deportees getting out of the truck
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - 16 March 2024
3. General Directorate of Migration gate
4. Trucks with Haitians to be deported driving away
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dajabon, Dominican Republic - 18 March 2024
5. People carrying goods to the market in wheelbarrows
6. Various of people at market
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Suson Chalas, Haitian clothes vendor:
“Ariel Henry is gone and there is nothing (in Haiti). Every day there are dead people, the others (the gangs) keep the people fighting.”
8. Cars and trucks loaded with merchandise
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) William Charpentier, Coordinator for the National Office on Migration:
“We would like to call the attention of the authorities of the Dominican State and Government that in these moments that Haiti is living, of humanitarian crisis of generalized violence of catastrophic situations, of famine; we ask that the Dominican Government could postpone or diminish the impetus of these deportations. It would be an achievement and an important contribution to the Haitian population. We are not only calling on the Dominican Republic; we are calling on all countries to postpone these deportations of emigrants of Haitian origin to Haiti."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - 16 March 2024
10. General Directorate of Migration gate
11. Haitians with work permits released for the detention center showing papers
STORYLINE:
Trucks with dozens of Haitians arrive daily to the border town of Dajabon in the Dominican Republic, from where they are deported back to Haiti.
They are Haitians detained due to their irregular immigration status despite the crisis Haiti is experiencing.
The trucks leave from the detention center of the General Directorate of Migration located in San Cristobal, on the outskirts of the capital of Santo Domingo where undocumented Haitians are detained.
Children and the elderly are placed in the poorly ventilated trucks with only a few seats ahead of a five-hour trip to the border.
Suson Chalas is a Haitian vendor at the market and a witness to the everyday arrival of the trucks.
He feels there is no hope for Haiti or those that are being sent back.
“People are still being killed in the streets," he said.
"In recent months we have seen that the General Directorate of Migration has increased deportations of Haitian immigrants to Haiti," William Charpentier, coordinator of the National Roundtable for Migration, told The Associated Press.
Last week, the United Nations, through the spokesman of the General Secretariat, Stephane Dujarric, called on the Dominican Republic and other countries to avoid forced deportations of Haitians to their country because it is considered unsafe.
Responding in an interview with Dominican journalists, Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez said the deportation policy responds to a national security policy, and that he has no other alternative but to continue with the return of all persons who are in the country illegally.
In Santo Domingo, of the hundreds that are detained for days, only a few are able to provide documents that will allow them to remain in the country, at least until they are rounded up again in the next migration police operation.
AP video shot by Martin Adames
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