AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
PRESS RELEASE
March 21, 2007
Dominican-Born Children Denied Papers Needed for School, Employment
(NEW YORK) -- Haitian workers living in the Dominican Republic are deported arbitrarily by the thousands every year, and their Dominican-born children, and even their grandchildren, remain as a permanent underclass, denied birth papers, and thus, access to schooling and decent jobs, according to a new study by Amnesty International.
At least half a million Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, working primarily in agriculture and construction. Each year, 20,000 to 30,000 of these workers are deported, with no judicial oversight, according to the Amnesty International report issued on March 21, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Amnesty International called on the Dominican authorities to end these arbitrary expulsions and discriminatory policies that prevent Dominicans of Haitian descent from obtaining Dominican nationality.
"From the workplace to the streets, Haitian migrants living in the Dominican Republic are at the very bottom of the social ladder. They and their Dominican-born children are being denied the most basic rights before the eyes of the Dominican state and society," said Gerardo Ducos, Amnesty International researcher on the Caribbean.
Deportations are so arbitrary that even Dominican nationals have been expelled from their own country because they "look like Haitians."
On January 4, 2006, Matilde, an 8-year-old girl, was seized by officials in the streets of the capital, Santo Domingo, and held overnight in a detention center for irregular migrants, without being allowed to contact her parents. She was only saved from being expelled when a local human rights organization proved she was a Dominican national. Officials had assumed she was Haitian because of her skin color and in the country illegally.
The lack of judicial oversight of mass expulsions is among the most pressing concerns because it removes a key protection and puts migrants at greater risk of human rights violations, such as arbitrary detention, discrimination, unfair administrative processes and ill-treatment.
"Deportation procedures should contain appropriate safeguards and conform to international human rights standards," said Holly Ackerman, Haiti and Dominican Republic country specialist for Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "This is our key concern right now."
Amnesty International's report revealed that racial discrimination prevents Dominicans of Haitian descent from obtaining birth certificates. Without a birth certificate, they are prevented from entering school beyond primary level or claiming an identity card when they become 18, barring them from the formal job market and from voting.
Eduardo was born in the Dominican Republic. He is 42 years old but doesn't have a birth certificate or any form of identification because his parents are Haitians. His four children also lack any form of identification, despite having been born in the Dominican Republic. For Eduardo to even apply for a birth certificate he would have to pay a fee of $147 -- more than a month of the family's income -- but even then the government could refuse to give him one.
"The Dominican Republic must take action to protect the rights of Haitian migrants and their Dominican children. It is their legal responsibility to do so," said Ducos.
The predicament faced by the descendants of guest workers in the Dominican Republic is part of a highly charged debate underway within nations struggling to balance the demand for foreign labor with a desire to limit who can become a citizen. At stake in this debate are the futures of some 190 million people worldwide who have sought work in foreign countries during the era of rapid economic globalization.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel 212-633-4150
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