The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) calls on the Government of the
Dominican Republic not to expel tens of thousands of Dominicans of
Haitian descent.
This follows statements by the Dominican
Ministry of Interior and the Police which indicate their intention to
expel Dominicans of Haitian descent whose citizenship status has not
been regularised.
In reiterating its human rights concerns, the
Caribbean Community emphasised that these Dominicans had been made
stateless by a ruling of the Dominican Constitutional Court of 2013,
which had been made retroactive to 1929, revoking their nationality. The
very real possibility that they could be expelled to Haiti, a country
of which they are not citizens and with which many have neither family
nor language links, was an additional cause for concern.
Extremely concerned by the looming threat of the expulsion of these
Dominicans, CARICOM initiated a discussion on this issue during the
recent European Union-CARIFORUM High-Level Meeting in Brussels on 11
June 2015.
The CARIFORUM side consisted of Heads of State and
Government and Ministers of CARICOM Member States and the Dominican
Republic with the EU being represented by the President of the EU
Council and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy. The meeting was informed of the plight of the Dominicans of
Haitian descent rendered stateless, both those who were documented and
those who were not.
As highlighted in the Joint Communique of the
High-Level Meeting, there was commitment to adhere to a number of
principles including “protection of the status of citizenship and the
presumption that persons shall not be rendered stateless.” In this
regard, it was agreed that “proposals to set up appropriate benchmarks
and monitoring mechanisms, to be presented by CARIFORUM, will be
considered”. Efforts to this end are currently underway.
The
Community calls on the Dominican Republic authorities to adhere to the
above principles and confirm the citizenship status of Dominicans of
Haitian descent. The Community also calls on the Dominican Republic not
to engage in the expulsion of Dominicans of Haitian descent and avoid
creating a humanitarian crisis in our Region.
