By Chris Hershberger-Esh, MCC’s Context Analyst for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Mexico City. With reports from MCC Haiti and MCC Washington D.C.
For generations, Haitian immigrant families have been living and working in the Dominican Republic. They play a critical role in society and in the economy, but like many immigrant populations all around the world, they face substantial discrimination. They do strenuous work in construction, agriculture and domestic work for little pay.
Before 2010, the Constitution granted citizenship to anybody born on Dominican soil, except for those deemed “in transit.” Then in 2010, the Constitution was amended so that, going forward, children born to undocumented parents would no longer be given citizenship.
On September 23rd of this year, a Dominican court ruled retroactively that Haitian immigrants born to undocumented parents since 1929 were to be considered “in transit,” and therefore no longer Dominican citizens. This ruling is estimated to leave 250,000 Haitian-Dominicans stateless.
“If followed through to enforcement,” explain Kristen and Wawa Chege, Mennonite Central Committee workers in Haiti:
at least four generations of Haitian-Dominicans will be denied nationality, some of whom have little to no experience in Haiti, and do not speak Kreyol or French.”
The impact of this decision has the potential to endanger the lives of several thousand migrant workers, as well as impact the development gains since the devastating earthquake of 2010. The sentiment in Haiti strongly opposes this decision, knowing that the targeted individuals are already a vulnerable population.
Without legal papers, the Haitians who chose to stay in the Dominican Republic will be denied access to health care, schools, official documentation, insurance, international travel papers, and other necessary paperwork for daily living. Without citizenship, these workers will be forced to face the risk of arrest or flee the country as stateless persons, further endangering their lives.
In consultation with MCC Haiti, the MCC Washington Office joined 17 other faith-based groups with connections to the Dominican Republic and Haiti and signed an Ecumenical Statement against the Dominican court’s ruling:
As churches and faith based organizations working and living in the country and accompanying this population directly, or those who serve them, we have directly observed the impact on them of increasing hostility….
This latest ruling of the Dominican Constitutional Court will dramatically worsen the already unjust situation of discrimination and economic marginalization. Retroactive application is illegal under international law and also violates several articles of the Dominican constitution itself.
The statement calls on the Dominican government to respect the rights and citizenship of all Dominican-Haitians. “As people of faith,” they continue,
we cannot remain silent as one entire section of the community is dehumanized simply because of the color of their skin and their cultural heritage. Jesus Christ welcomed all into the beloved community, and we cannot honor and follow our Lord and Savior by remaining silent in the face of such extreme injustice.
Additionally, the MCC Washington Office signed onto a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with human rights groups, humanitarian and faith-based organizations. The letter calls on the United States to use its leverage in various specific ways to pressure the Dominican government to respect Dominican-Haitian rights (read the full letter here).
Pastor Rosario Garcia, the president of the Mennonite Church Council in the Dominican Republic, estimates that Dominicans are split 50-50 on whether they support the ruling. He mentioned that there are Haitian immigrants in some of their congregations, but as of a few weeks ago, the Dominican Mennonite Church had not yet had a chance to discuss a formal position.
The situation has intensified the volatile relationship between the two countries, and has further solidified the outsider status of Haitian descendants living in the Dominican. The retroactive application of this law is illegal under international law, and immorally targets the poorest of the poor.
“If this law were applied equally to everyone living in the Dominican Republic,” Kristen and Wawa Chege point out, “it would cover almost the entire population who are descendants of Spanish explorers that came to the island ‘in-transit.’”
[…] To learn more about the recent history of legal discrimination against Dominicans of Haitian descent read The Dominican Republic’s discrimination against Haitians (Washington Post.) and this previous LACA blog post Standing with Haitian-Dominicans against statelessness. […]