Haitians displaced by violence face deportation after fleeing to Dominican Republic

Geoff Bennett:

The U.N. says 1.4 million Haitians, more than 10 percent of the country, have fled their homes because of violence and instability. Many have crossed the border to neighboring Dominican Republic, but, there, they live in fear and limbo; 200,000 have even been deported back to Haiti.

As part of our ongoing series on border security around the world, fellows from British Columbia University's Global Reporting Program visited the island and have this report, as told by our Ali Rogin.

Ali Rogin:

These cattle cars have been modified to hold dozens of migrants at a time. The Dominican Republic has ordered up trucks like this to roam the streets of towns and the countryside, filling up every day with Haitian migrants.

In one of them, we met a young man named Calerb, who told us he came to the Dominican Republic to work construction.

Calerb, Haitian Migrant (through interpreter):

It's wrong. It's wrong. All this time that we have been here, we have been going through misery, working for nothing, working for a house to live in. How is it that I'm in jail without an arrest warrant, without having done anything?

Ali Rogin:

This sweep in the Dominican Republic is part of our response to escalating gang violence and economic instability across the border in Haiti, which has escalated steadily since the assassination of Haiti's president in 2021.

Last September, at a U.N. address, Dominican President Luis Abinader pledged that his country would not fall victim to the pressures from the crisis in Haiti.

Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader (through interpreter):

The instability in our neighboring country has put significant pressure on our own security.

Ali Rogin:

President Abinader fortified and expanded a border wall and pledged to round up 10,000 Haitians every week to secure his country from undocumented migrants.

The border town of Dajabon has been the epicenter of the deportation efforts. The town's market is one of the only places Haitians are allowed to enter legally to buy and sell products. But they must leave the same day over this heavily monitored bridge.

Armed Dominican border police stand guard, and there have been several incidents of violence against Haitians at this market.

Mayor Santiago Riverón (through interpreter):

It is a security issue. In Haiti, there are gang members. There are people who maintain anarchy in that country.

Ali Rogin:

Farmer Santiago Riveron is the mayor of Dajabon and has been aggressive in his stance against undocumented Haitians, even taking to the streets to violently round up sleeping migrants on his own.

But while the volume of deportations back to Haiti may have skyrocketed, the border remains porous. Many migrants are known to cross back into the Dominican Republic across this river, and it's an open secret that a bribe can secure passage.

Man (through interpreter):

It's all about money. If you have the money, they let you go. If you don't have money, you stay. To go back, you pay a little something. You pay an immigration chief. The chief always puts someone else to do that for him.

Santiago Riveron (through interpreter):

It has become a big business, especially for some military. I cannot say that all the military are corrupted, but there are many corrupt military who receive bribes so that the border can be crossed.

Ali Rogin:

The day after the Global Reporting Program team met that young Haitian construction worker, Calerb in the migration truck, they went to his home to speak with his family, only to find Calerb himself back at home with his wife and baby, whose identities he asked us to conceal.

How did you get back from Haiti to the Dominican Republic?

Calerb (through interpreter):

I always pass through a waterway or go through the end of the wall, where the wall does not reach to cross through the woods. If I could survive in Haiti, I would stay, because here we are not living. Because we are not living, we are surviving. There is no life for Haitians.

Ali Rogin:

He says he's lost track of how many times he has been captured, deported and returned.

Bridget Wooding:

The army, the police, anybody in a uniform, the watchman down the road is beginning to be involved in ways which lead to extortion, corruption, and to creating of chaos.

Ali Rogin:

Human rights activists like Bridget Wooding have condemned Dominican treatment of Haitians. Amnesty International calls it de facto racist migration policies, in violation of the country's international human rights obligations.

Bridget Wooding:

This particular anti-Black, this particularly anti-Haitian sentiment that the authorities have attempted to whip up, there's not a rational way in which migration is being addressed. And, on the contrary, it's being used as a scapegoat for a lot of ills.

Santiago Riveron (through interpreter):

It is said that we are racists. That is not true because the majority of Dominicans have Black skin. So how can there be racism? The issue that we have with our neighbors is their lack of culture. We would like them to learn from us. They should be the same thing that we do.

Ali Rogin:

But even many educated, professional Haitians with legal right to study or work in the Dominican Republic have reported being arbitrarily detained.

Louis Jherry Wood, a Haitian studying to be a pilot in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo was grabbed right off the street.

Louis Jherry Wood, Haiti Flight Student:

I was going to the market to buy something. And, by surprise, I encounter with this truck. One of them hit me, telling me to shut up. So I showed him about the visa. I showed him the passport. And they told me that that doesn't matter, and they took me in custody and put me in this truck.

I really feel that I was discriminated, like, because I was Black and, worse, because I was Haitian.

Ali Rogin:

Louis was taken to this former recreational center converted into a detention facility to meet the demands of the country's migrants' needs. Outside the center, families waited for loved ones who had been detained.

Louis Jherry Wood:

I spent like one night, one day without eating anything, without drinking water. I was really traumatized, because it was the first time for me to have been treated this way, because, even in Haiti, there was a situation of violence, I didn't really see this stuff.

Ali Rogin:

To date, Louis has been picked up four times and he lives in constant fear of being detained again. And he's one of the most connected Haitian migrants in the country, having been sponsored by Alexis Victoria Yeb, a prominent senator in President Abinader's ruling party.

Alexis Victoria Yeb, Dominican Republic Senator (through interpreter):

I learned about Louis' desire to become a pilot. It captivated me, his story, his dedication, his desire to achieve his dream. I got him a work permit, a study permit, and he is here legally with all the documents.

Ali Rogin:

And while Senator Yeb says the Dominican Republic is reliant on cheap Haitian labor, particularly in agriculture and manufacturing, there's a larger national security concern.

Alexis Victoria Yeb (through interpreter):

We need Haitian labor if they are regulated, if they have identification. We get them the work residence here. The thing is that Haiti is completely devastated, where they don't have controls over their citizens. Haiti is controlled by a terrorist gang, so we have to control our country.

Calerb (through interpreter):

This is my dream. It's my dream that one day I can see Haiti working, and we would cross the border to return to our country. I have a child who's only 2 months old. I'd like to see his future. I'd like to see him grow up. I would not like to pass the misery that I'm going through now.

Ali Rogin:

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Ali Rogin.