Dominican government tells UN the influx of Haitians into the country is ‘unsustainable’

SANTO DOMINGO, June 30 The Dominican government responded on Friday that the “massive” influx of Haitian nationals into the Dominican Republic is “unsustainable,” after a UN expert called for a halt to repatriations of Haitians due to the grave crisis in neighboring Haiti.

“Being a similarly developing country, not responsible for the situation in Haiti, it is disproportionate and unreasonable to claim that our country has a responsibility to ensure the social well-being of Haitians,” the government said in a statement issued by the chancellery.

He added that this is “an inalienable obligation of the State of Haiti, and if this is not possible, it is a shared responsibility of the international community.”

The memorandum added, in response to statements by the independent expert on human rights for Haiti of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, William O’Neill, who said that “the duty of the Dominican government is first and foremost with its citizens.” He called for a halt to the repatriation of Haitians, due to the state of insecurity in that country.

The State Department statement compiles data indicating that in 2022 the Dominican Republic deported 120,900 irregular aliens, nearly all of them of Haitian origin.

Likewise, he cites figures from the National Health Service (SNS), which indicate that in 2018, 12.5% ​​of births in the entire public network corresponded to Haitian mothers.

This increased to 23.7% in 2019, 27.2% in 2020, 30.5% in 2021, 33.1% in 2022, and 34% in 2023 (based on data through May).

“In the past three years, we have achieved on average more than 35,000 births to Haitian mothers in public hospitals. The cost of these services is borne by the government, with Dominican taxpayers’ money,” the note reads.

The political, security and humanitarian crisis that Haiti is going through “requires an immediate response to a repeated request by the Prime Minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, to send an international security force to support the Haitian police, to stop the gangs’ control over most of the Haitian capital,” insisted the Dominican Republic in the note.

And the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered that official spokesmen for the United Nations “should be careful in their statements to avoid promoting irregular Haitian immigration as a solution to the suffering of this people.”

He said the United Nations “should redouble its efforts to contribute to the restoration of peace, security and democratic institutions in that country.”

Finally, he said he was aware of the “concern of all actors who have an interest in Haiti”, but said that “the internal situation of this country will never be an obstacle to the full application of Dominican legislation”.

The document concluded, “The Dominican Republic, as a social and democratic state of law, will always make the decisions that best align with the national interest.” EFE

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