Oct 2 (Askume) – The Dominican Republic on Wednesday announced “urgent” plans to deport 10,000 migrants a week while strengthening enforcement on its border with Haiti, as the United Nations asked it to stop its conflict-hit neighbour from expelling people.
The Caribbean island’s statement did not specify whether the plan would target Haitians, but most of the deportees are citizens of its neighboring countries.
If the plan goes ahead, the number of deportations would rise significantly. According to the United Nations, more than 200,000 Haitians were forcibly deported last year.
The President’s Office said in a statementIt said the UN-backed security mission, aimed at helping Haiti police regain control of the capital from a growing number of armed gangs, has made slow progress and achieved “limited” results.
“Faced with this reality, we are forced to take decisive action,” presidential spokesman Homero Figueroa said in a statement.
Figueroa said the plan calls for more border inspectors, surveillance drones and the establishment of “temporary repatriation camps” and takes security and human rights into account.
A spokesman for Haiti’s prime minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United Nations has called on other countries, including the Dominican Republic and the United States, to halt deportations to Haiti, where extreme hunger has worsened and now affects nearly half of the 11 million people.
The number of internally displaced persons in Haiti has nearly doubled in six months to more than 700,000 as gangs spread into areas around the capital.
The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, accounted for 96 percent of Haitians expelled from countries around the world last year.
Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader was re-elected this year and has promised a tougher stance on Haitian immigrants.
Last year, the Dominican Republic closed the crossing, citing a dispute with Haiti over the construction of a canal on a shared river. Construction of the border wall will begin in 2022.
Local activists have protested for years against the deportation of vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and the stripping of Dominican citizenship from about 200,000 people whose parents were Haitian a decade ago.
