(11 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Elías Piña, Dominican Republic – 30 January 2025
1. Deported Haitians going through turnstiles from the Dominican Republic to Haiti
2. Haitian deportees being directed where to go
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belladere, Haiti – January 30 2025
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jimmy Milien, Haitian deportee:
"They looked at me and said, ‘Damn devil Haitian, get off.’"
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Elías Piña, Dominican Republic – 30 January 2025
4. Haitian deportees being directed where to go
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belladere, Haiti – January 30 2025
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Duarte Vity, Haitian deportee:
++STARTS ON SHOT 4++
"In the morning, they came to get the Haitians, and they caught me too. They said I was partying too much (drinking with friends) and that was why."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Elia Piña, Dominican Republic – 30 January 2025
6. Haitians standing waiting to be processed
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belladere, Haiti – 30 January 2025
7. Haitians having their backpacks checked
8. Pan of deported Haitians waiting in line to receive food at the reception center
STORYLINE:
Over 500 people descended from dusty trucks on a recent morning and shuffled through a tiny gap in a border gate separating Haiti from the Dominican Republic.
They were the first deportees of the day, some still clad in work clothes and others barefoot as they lined up for food, water and medical care in the Haitian border city of Belladère before mulling their next move.
The Dominican government says Haitian migrants have overburdened public services, with more than 80,000 new Haitian students enrolled in schools in the past four years.
Meanwhile, health officials say Haitian women account for up to 70% of births in the country, costing the government millions of dollars.
Under a broiling sun, the migrants recounted what they said were mounting abuses by Dominican officials after President Luis Abinader ordered them in October to start deporting at least 10,000 immigrants a week under a harsh new policy widely criticized by civil organizations.
Activists say the number of alleged human rights violations ranging from unauthorized home raids to racial profiling to deporting breastfeeding mothers and unaccompanied minors is surging as officials ramp up deportations to Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
More than a quarter million people were deported last year, and more than 31,200 in January alone.
Roudy Joseph, an activist who accused officials of ignoring due process during arrests, said the situation has reached a “critical point.”
Despite the crackdown, many re-enter the Dominican Republic, exposing a broken system.
That afternoon marked the second time Jimmy Milien, a 32-year-old floor installer, was deported.
He was arrested in the capital, Santo Domingo, in 2024 and again in mid-January when authorities boarded a public bus and pointed at him.
“Damn devil Haitian, get off,” he recalled them saying before they even asked for documents.
He left behind his wife and two children, ages 3 and 12, and doesn’t know when he’ll see them again.
Some of the deportees planned to travel to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, but like thousands of other migrants dropped off in Belladère.
It means he would be forced to cross through gang-controlled territory where gunmen routinely order people off public buses or open fire on them.
In Haiti more than 5,600 people were reported killed last year, the majority by gangs that control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
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