Link to Article: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/haiti-foreign-minister-blasts-dominican-republics-mass-deportation-plan-2024-10-07/
This Monday, the Haitian Foreign Affairs Minister condemned a policy announced the government of the Dominican Republic last week to mass deport asylum-seeking migrants back across the border to Haiti, numbering somewhere around ~10,000 migrants every week. In a statement by the Haitian Foreign Affairs Minister yesterday, he goes on to state; “…we are witnessing an affront to human dignity,” alongside a further message later in his statement, demanding respect and justice be upheld by the Dominican Republic in these trying times for Haiti and its citizens.
So far as of the start of October, the Dominican Republic has already deported upwards of 9,000 illegal migrants with an estimate of 4,900 of those being Haitian migrants that illegally crossed the border, these statements being confirmed by a Dominican official–who chose to remain anonymous per a Reuters report. The Dominican reaffirms its policy with allegations that the crisis was sparked by Haiti’s lack of control over its internal security, particularly because of the high rise in gang violence and anarchy across the country. This comes alongside an appeal from the United Nations for governments in the region to stop the deportations of Haitians back to an unsafe warzone. An estimated~200,000 Haitians were forcibly returned back across the border last year–and with these new policies, that will starkly increase to just over 3.5 million if the policy was followed by the book, and migrants continued to flood back in despite continued deportations.
From my own perspective, I think this will only continually worsen the humanitarian crisis going on in Haiti and will have long-term consequences for its people, not to mention its relations with the Dominicans. These repeated, continued mass deportations could only continue to further the spiral that is the humanitarian situation in Haiti, and it is something that the United Nations, amongst other nations, are attempting to stop and provide aid for. Gang violence is only going to persist if continued anarchy is allowed, and with the government having to allocate for new mass deportations, alongside its own internal strifes, it may well further throw the Haitian government and state into chaos.
As for how the parties could react–efforts from around the globe are continuing to support the reconstruction and reorganization efforts in Haiti, as well as to combat the gangs and violence occurring across the entirety of its nation, Haiti itself could further condemn the Dominican government, but is powerless to act on its condemnations or threats due to its internal strife. The Dominican government can continue to deport the illegal migrants from its borders only incurring international verbal sanctions due to the complicated situation ongoing with both parties.
This can relate to class due to the domestic level of analysis being that the Dominican Republic is heavily worried about its border security with the Haitian government, of which is related in a regional level to the Dominican Republic beyond its border.