His Haitian passport was in order, with up-to-date visas, so when police in the Dominican Republic detained him for hours, Josue Azor felt certain it was because of the black color of his skin.
The arrest of the young photographer came amid a wave of expulsions of Haitian migrants by the Dominican government, with black people being specifically targeted, according to advocacy groups in Haiti — an allegation the government reject.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, but their economies and living conditions differ dramatically.
Photo: AFP
The much richer Dominican Republic, with its thriving tourism industry, attracts Haitians hoping for a better life. Further fueling the migrant flow are the growing insecurity and political chaos that make life in Haiti increasingly challenging.
However, Azor was traveling for professional reasons — working with Dominican friends on a stop-motion film. He had just arrived in Las Terrenas, a scenic tourist destination on the northeastern Dominican coast, when he was stopped by police.
“From the edge of town to the police station, the police were picking up young men at random, targeting them for the color of their skin,” the 36-year-old said. “It was like a hunt for Haitians.”
Photo: AFP
Azor said the officers “were humiliating people” and refused to verify his identity papers or to let him make a telephone call, placing him in a jail cell with a dozen other Haitians.
He was there for several hours, and only after the arrival of Dominican migrant rights advocates called by a friend of his was he allowed to prove his regular status.
With criminal gangs increasingly taking control of neighborhoods in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, the flow of migrants to the Dominican Republic has swollen, prompting Santo Domingo to harden its policy, even building a wall along about half the common border.
From September to last month alone, Dominican authorities expelled more than 56,300 Haitians, far more than the 15,530 in the same period last year, the Support Group for Returnees and Refugees said.
The Haitian group has denounced the “hatred” and “racial discrimination” that it says underlie the trend.
Advocacy groups for migrants in the two countries say some expulsions have been conducted illegally — at unofficial border crossings, often at night, and sometimes involving unaccompanied minors.
It is not only non-governmental organizations leveling criticism.
The UN last month called on countries to stop forcibly repatriating Haitians, given the grave humanitarian crisis gripping the country.
The US Department of State later that month issued a warning to Americans considering trips to the Dominican Republic, saying some travelers had complained of being delayed or detained because of the color of their skin.
“There is evidence of racial prejudice and discrimination against persons of dark complexion, Haitians, or those perceived to be Haitian,” the department said in a report.
Dominican authorities lashed out at that language, calling the report “ambiguous” and saying it provided no proof of any systematic scheme to discriminate against migrants.
Early this month, Dominican President Luis Abinader said that “the sacrifice made by the Dominican Republic with the excess of irregular immigrants exceeds its possibilities of assimilation.”
However, there are also reports of black Dominicans facing racism.
“On TikTok, you can see black-skinned Dominicans describing humiliating situations they have been subjected to in their own country,” said Edwin Paraison, executive director of the Zile Foundation, a binational friendship group.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
RSS