The Pattern of Expulsions and Deportations: 1998 – 2001

<<BACK . . . 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ENDNOTES

The modus operandi of the mass expulsions described in the preceding paragraphs has continued unmodified up to the present day, despite periodic changes in government. It was employed with ruthless efficiency during the most recent wave of mass expulsions, carried out in November and December of 1999 in response to the publication of the Inter-American Commission’s Second Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Dominican Republic, in October 1999.¹⁷ It is estimated that as many as 20,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were expelled in less than two months at the end of 1999, with thousands more suffering the same fate throughout 2000.¹⁸ So serious was this most recent campaign against the Haitian population in that country that the Inter-American Commission issued a set of precautionary measures urging the Dominican government to "cease the mass expulsions of aliens," and to guarantee that some measure of legal process was afforded individual deportees.¹⁹

In August 2000, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights, sitting in San José, Costa Rica, issued a series of precautionary measures, similar to protective injunctions, in response to a petition on behalf of a number of Haitians migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent. The Dominican government was ordered to allow those petitioners who had been expelled to reenter the country as well as to refrain from deporting those petitioners that had remained.

Neither the Commission’s precautionary measures, nor those subsequently ordered by the Court, have had any effect on the practice of mass expulsions. On August 29, 2000, for instance, just ten days after the Court granted its first set of provisional measures, the new administration of President Hipólito Mejía expelled 300 Haitians at one time through Dajabón.²⁰ By the beginning of 2001, the expulsion rate had skyrocketed, with thousands being deported in the first two weeks of the year alone.²¹Governmental and non-governmental sources clearly indicate that the rate of expulsions has increased substantially since President Mejía took office.²² According to official Dominican government statistics (which tend to underreport), a total of 14,007 persons were deported in 2000, of which 8,598 were expelled between August and December 2000.²³ These figures establish that, on average, the rate of expulsions tripled once President Mejía took office, when compared to the situation under his predecessor, Leonel Fernández. In other words, President Mejía is responsible for a full 60% of all persons expelled during the year 2000, even though he did not take office until mid-August of that year.²⁴ Nor did he delay: non-governmental sources estimate that about 6,000 people were deported in the first two months of President Mejia’s administration, 3,000 of them in the first 15 days.²⁵ It was more or less at this time that Petitioners members of the Jean family were expelled.²⁶

It is evident not only that there has been the policy of collective and arbitrary expulsions in the Dominican Republic for some time, but also that it has intensified. The Dominican and Haitian press and other sources have reported numerous accounts of expulsions carried out in collective, arbitrary and summary fashion since President Mejía came to power.²⁷ Their observations are corroborated by the extensive research of local and international non-governmental organizations, as well as academic institutions, involved in tracking the phenomenon.²⁸

In April of 2001, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) condemned the Dominican Republic’s longstanding and ongoing practice of mass expulsions. The HRC expressed its grave concern at the "continuing reports of mass expulsions of ethnic Haitians, even when such persons are nationals of the Dominican Republic."²⁹ The Committee found the Dominican Republic in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights because "no account is taken of the situation of individuals for whom the Dominican Republic is their own country [], nor of cases where expulsion [entails] the risk of subsequent cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, nor yet of cases where the legality of an individual’s presence in the country is in dispute and must be settled in proceedings that satisfy the requirements of [due process]."³⁰Similarly, the HRC lamented "the failure to protect Haitians living and working in the Dominican Republic from serious human rights abuses," including their working conditions and the restrictions on their freedom of movement.³¹

Dominican officials interviewed during this period frankly acknowledged the widespread practice of summarily expelling presumed Haitians; some even claimed that it would continue indefinitely.³² Perhaps most startling were the admissions made in February 2001 by General Trajano Moreta Cuevas, Director of the Office of Migration in the Department of the Interior and Police, and Fidelina Méndez, Subdirector for Haitian Affairs in the same office, to investigators from the University of California, Berkeley, International Human Rights Clinic.³³ These officials described the techniques based on racial profiling used by government officials in rounding up suspected Haitians; they also described how victims are captured and expelled in large groups, collectively, on buses commandeered for this purpose, with no formal legal procedures.³⁴ The entire process, according to these high-ranking officials, does not take more than a few hours, including the trip to the border, since "they just have to check whether or not [the suspects] have permission to be in the country." ³⁵ Checking for proper documentation consists of rounding up suspects and asking, "Do you have identification? [If so,] OK. No? Get on the bus."³⁶ In this regard, the leadership of the Office of Migration pointed emphasized to the interviewers that "a bus would be about 40 people that [the officials can] do in 1-2 hours."³⁷

It is evident, then, that consistent patterns have continued to characterize the collective and arbitrary expulsions carried out by the Dominican authorities.³⁸ Foremost among these is the use of racial profiling and inherently discriminatory criteria for the selection of victims. Immigration officials regularly pick up, detain and expel dark-skinned people as a result of their racial profiling tactics. To illustrate the extent to which color is used as a proxy for Haitian blood and, therefore, the lack of a right to be in the country, as well as the arbitrary and capricious nature of the process, in September 2000, immigration officials detained an black American student and nearly expelled him to Haiti despite his protests, only because of his dark skin.³⁹

Other patterns have also continued to occur with bureaucratic regularity. The collective nature of most deportations and expulsions and the total absence of legal process, including advance notice, an adequate hearing before a competent authority and the right to appeal and consistent hallmarks of the Dominican government’s behavior.⁴⁰ Verbal and physical abuse by the Dominican authorities is still common, and families continue to be torn apart, with husbands separated from wives, and children from parents.⁴¹

NEXT>> . . . 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ENDNOTES