- Article 11 of the Dominican Constitution guarantees citizenship to “all persons born in the territory of the Dominican Republic". Yet, the Dominican-born children of Haitians, even asylum seekers, are denied Dominican citizenship. Recently, Dominican officials have moved to change their constitution and to retroactively deny citizenship rights to Dominicans of Haitian descent.
- More than 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent have no documents and have been denied their birthright citizenship. A small fraction of those are children of asylum seekers forced into the Dominican Republic to escape political persecution in Haiti.
- Nearly 1,500 Haitians are now seeking asylum status in the Dominican Republic. Some have awaited a response for over 15 years.
No Refuge: Haitian Refugee Women in the
Dominican Republic
Haiti shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. Although both countries struggle economically, the disparity in wealth and development between the Dominican Republic and its environmentally devastated, impoverished and politically unstable neighbor has spurred thousands of Haitian migrants and asylum seekers across the Dominican border.
Haitians Seek Refugee Protection in the Dominican Republic
Vulnerable populations, like elderly Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic, need special assistance to survive.
Haiti’s current lack of central government control, combined with over three decades of violent political upheaval and dictatorship, has led thousands to flee their homeland.
“After the fall of the Aristide government in 1991, entire families were assassinated. We went into hiding, into the mountains. Later I reunited with other supporters of the deposed government and we tried to strategize about what to do. Armed men entered the meeting and began burning people alive, killing everyone. I was pregnant with my first baby at the time. I escaped and was able to get over the border.” – Agathe
“My father was a political activist who helped to organize for Aristide’s party. After Aristide’s government fell, the Tontons Macoutes killed my father. They threatened our entire family and finally I fled the country and came to the Dominican Republic.” – Marie
No Assistance
The Dominican government has been unresponsive to the protection needs of these refugees, issuing a mere handful of asylum decisions in the last decade. It has even arbitrarily stripped some Haitian refugees of their refugee status.
A Note from the National Director
Dear Friends of JRS/USA:
This issue of the Refugee Voice explores the Haitian refugee crisis in the Dominican Republic, with special attention to Haitian women.
Most Haitians in the Dominican Republic live in extreme poverty without access to education, potable water, health services, housing or electricity. Among the larger Haitian migrant population are refugees and asylum seekers who have been forcibly displaced from their homeland and now live in an inhospitable land under a government that refuses to acknowledge them. Perhaps most disturbing is the discrimination targeting asylum seekers’ children, many of whom were born on Dominican soil yet whose Dominican citizenship goes unrecognized.
Since 1995 JRS has worked to raise awareness about the systematic exclusion of Haitian asylum seekers and their Dominican children and to provide funding for health care for this vulnerable population. We thank the JRS office in the Dominican Republic for their partnership in producing this newsletter.
The Haitian refugee women interviewed have lived in limbo for the last fifteen years, waiting for the Dominican government and the international community to offer an end to their pain.
Fr. Ken Gavin, S.J.