HAITIANS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - - THEY JUST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANTO DOMINGO 003282

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR WHA/CAR, DRL,PRM; GENEVA FOR RMA, PSA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/09/2016
TAGS: DR PHUM PGOV PREF SMIG ASEC UNHCR IOM HA
SUBJECT: HAITIANS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - - THEY JUST
WON'T GO AWAY

REF: A. A) GENEVA 02561


B. B) SANTO DOMINGO 02790

C. C) SANTO DOMINGO 03250

Classified By: Pol Counselor Michael A. Meigs. Reason: 1.4 (b) and (d)
.


1. (U) SUMMARY: Unfulfilled promises, nationalistic rebuffs
and outright distortions continue to characterize the
Dominican response to international concerns over the
country's treatment of its largely undocumented Haitian
minority. Despite repeated pledges, the government has failed
to comply with the September 2005 citizenship and
registration ruling against it by the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights. Discrimination, mistreatment and arbitrary
deportations targeting individuals of Haitian ancestry are
commonplace. Haitians are hugely unpopular among Dominicans,
who blame them for many social ills. Outside appeals to the
Dominican Government to improve its treatment of Haitians are
growing in both frequency and seriousness; even so, Dominican
attitudes are deeply rooted and real reform is not expected
anytime soon. END SUMMARY.

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A year passes without action on the IACHR ruling...
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2. (U) October 4 was the one-year anniversary of the
judgement in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR)
against the Dominican government for refusing to provide
birth certificates and citizenship papers to two
Dominican-born girls of Haitian descent. The case was
originated in 1998 with the assistance of the Berkeley
(California) Center for Human Rights and Dominican
non-governmental organizations. The Inter-American Human
Rights Commission was unable to mediate a solution and passed
it to the IACHR. Although Dominican authorities had issued
citizenship papers in 2003, the IACHR ordered the authorities
to rework their system for issuing birth certificates and to
provide an apology and monetary compensation to the
plaintiffs.


3. (U) Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Tronocoso pledged in
December 2005 and again at the OAS General Assembly in Santo
Domingo in June that the government would comply with the
ruling. To date the administration has not done so. Even the
simplest of the ruling's provisions - those giving the
country one year to issue an apology to the girls and payment
of basic compensation - have not been carried out.
Administration officials have not responded to press
commentaries about the subject, including a heavily ironic
one on September 30 by leading journalist Juan Bolivar Diaz
(available on our SIPRNET site).

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... while reports of abuse against Haitians continue.
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4. (U) All the while, abusive treatment of Haitians has
continued. More than 18,000 Haitians and individuals of
Haitian descent were deported to Haiti over the first eight
months of 2006 alone. Many deportees alleged mass roundups in
the communities where they resided, during which they were
not allowed to present residence documentation or collect
their belongings. Detainees were at times confined in very
close quarters for up to several days pending deportation.
They say they are denied food and water for up to 24 hours at
a time. Dominican-based human rights organizations say they
have corroborated these allegations. Government officials
deny their accusations, sometimes going so far as to revile
the organizations and individual members of them.


5. (U) Even Dominican-born persons who have never set foot in
Haiti are at risk of being deported. The country's
constitution grants Dominican citizenship to all persons born
on Dominican soil - except those born to diplomats or to
parents who are "in transit." The Dominican government has
long relied on the "in transit" exemption to deny birth
certificates and citizenship registrationto children born to
Haitian parents, defining as "in transit" those who are
undocumented or hold only temporary employment authorization
(the cases of the great majority of the 700,000 to 1 million
Haitian nationals in the country). In its October 2005
decision on a constitutional complaint lodged by the Jesuit
Service for Migrants, the Dominican Supreme Court confirmed
the government's application of the "in transit" exception to
children born to individuals without residence papers, citing

provisions of the Haitian constitution that confer Haitian
citizenship to all children of Haitian nationals. On October
9 in a speech to open consultations on constitutional reform,
President Fernandez advocated amending the national charter
to make this specific.


6. (U) Haitians are not the only individuals unserved by the
national registration services. As many as 20 percent of the
population of unquestionable Dominican nationality fails to
obtain citizenship documents (cedulas). Many simply cannot
afford the fees. The National Registry typically issues no
documents to those who fail a stringent 11-point proof of
nationality test. Hospital birth certificates, often not
available, are insufficient for civil use. Lacking birth
certificates, children are unable to apply for medical
benefits or schooling beyond fourth grade. (For a time, the
plaintiffs in the IACHR case had to attend night school
classes for adults.) When children come of age lacking such
crucial identity documentation, they face in turn problems
registering the births of their own children -- thus
perpetuating a vicious cycle of poverty.


7. (U) The government has no policy of discrimination against
Haitians or Dominico-Haitians, but that fact counts for
little. During 2006, newspapers and media regularly reported
that individuals and groups targeted Haitians for beatings,
arrests, abuse and discrimination on the basis of their
ethnic and national origin. For example, in January men
dressed in military uniforms were seen setting ablaze more
than 30 dwellings in the Haitian community of El Fao, Guerra.
The act was interpreted as reprisal for the death of an Air
Force sergeant. The Secretary of the Armed Forces later
disputed the allegations of military involvement, asserting
that NGOs were seeking to tarnish his agency's reputation.

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Outsiders begin to take notice...
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8. (U) More outside organizations and governments are taking
an interest in the plight of the Haitian community in the
Dominican Republic. In September a coalition of seven
British NGOs sent an open letter to President Fernandez
complaining about the many problems facing Haitians in the
country. Among other demands, the organizations called on
Fernandez to comply with last year's IACHR ruling and to
convene a dialogue with Haiti to discuss the formulation of
migration policies and border controls between their
countries.


9. (C) In August the United Nations High Committee on
Refugees (UNHCR) sent a representative to the Dominican
Republic to investigate allegations that Haitian refugees
were being systematically denied basic legal rights. In a
private message to post's political officer at the conclusion
of the visit, the UNHCR representative (PROTECT) concluded,

(QUOTE) I was quite discouraged by the end of my mission, as
a result of my meetings with government officials. The
situation is more bleak, even, than I had thought, in that
the human rights violations as well as due process violations
that Haitian asylum seekers and refugees are experiencing are
more generalized, and far more serious, than I had
anticipated. I am currently in discussions with my Director
to reorient UNHCR's advocacy and protection strategy in the
Dominican Republic, and I would certainly like to be in touch
with you further once the way forward is better defined.
(END QUOTE)


10. (C) Secretary-General of the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) Brunson McKinley used his visit in
September to stress the importance of improving migratory
policy. An IOM staffer subsequently commented to Embassy's
DCM that IOM visitors were unimpressed with the response they
received from the Dominicans. He indicated that IOM would
encourage more dialogue on Haitian migration in the Dominican
Republic, seeking to convince Dominicans of the important
role that Haitians play in their country and of the need to
guarantee their basic human rights.

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A Formal Dialogue in Norway
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11. (U) The idea of promoting dialogue between the Dominican
and Haitian governments as a means to improve migratory
policy is not a new one. It has been tried before - most

recently in August of this year, when the Norwegian
government supported a conference in Norway involving
Dominican and Haitian civil society representatives to
"mediate" a discussion on migratory policy. The Dominican
government's response to press reports was swift and pointed:
"The Dominican Government has not asked for, nor does it
require the assistance of the Government of Norway in
negotiating with the Government of Haiti concerning migratory
problems," announced the Dominican Ministry of Foreign
Affairs the next day.


12. (U) UNHCR has long taken an interest in issues of
refugees and statelessness in the Dominican Republic. The
organization had a permanent office in the country from 2003
to 2005 but closed it, ostensibly due to budgetary
constraints. A few months ago an organization representing
Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic sent an open
letter to the UNHCR requesting that the organization
establish a permanent office in the Dominican Republic. The
letter complained of the problems faced by Haitian asylum
seekers, such as the government's refusal to process their
claims and the continued deportation even of those whose
claims are in process. Ref A documents comments of Philippe
Lavanchy, Director of the Bureau for the Americas at UNHCR,
and to PRM Assistant Secretary Ellen Sauerbrey, abouthis
organization's concern over the predicament of "stateless"
persons in the Dominican Republic. Lavanchy said that UNHCR
found it very difficult to work in the country (a polite
characterization of the Dominican government's open hostility
to foreign inercessions on behalf of Haitians). Lavanchy
said he was worried that re-opening UNHCR representation
might draw more Haitian asylum-seekers across the border.


14. (U) Last month the World Bank announced the approval of a
USD 3.5 million project to support a program to provide birth
certificates and other forms of documentation to
approximately 450,000 who lack such documents. Luis Arias,
president of the Central Election Board, which oversees all
registrationsk, commented that Haitians would not be
permitted to use the program as a means "to apply
fraudulently" for identity documents.


15. (SBU) A Dominican nationalist streak usually colors
discussions of Haitian migration. Perceptions of outside
interference in Dominican migration policy often spark
prickly assertions of national sovereignty. This tendency
contrasts with the Dominican strategy in other areas, where
the government tends to respond to international concerns in
a more pragmatic and cooperative fashion.


16. (U) An example of the emphatic Dominican views on Haitian
migration was the government's ready support of the U.S.
position opposing creation of a permanent UN forum on
international migration. The UN Secretary General had hoped
that the creation of such a forum would be one of the
outcomes of the UN's September High-Level Dialogue on
International Migration and Development. During our visit to
the MFA Under Secretary for Consular Affairs, she anticipated
the subject and announced her government's opposition to the
forum before the political officer had a chance to state the
U.S. position.

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The Problem's Roots Run Deep. . .
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17. (U) Haitian migration is enormously unpopular among
Dominicans at virtually all levels of society. In a process
familiar worldwide, resident aliens are blamed for social
problems of violence, drugs, prostitution and economic
instability. Haitians are so unpopular here that the leader
of a local NGO privately confided that his organization's
work with destitute Haitians was permitted by local
politicians only as long as their constituents did not learn
of the assistance. A common sentiment among educated
Dominicans is that the international community is leaving the
Dominican Republic to address the consequences of Haiti's
instability on its own. The complement to that is the urban
myth that developed countries intend to unite the two
countries as the single state of "Hispaniola," thereby
dumping all responsibility on the Dominicans.


18. (U) Undocumented Haitians have long been a reliable
source of cheap labor for sugar harvesting and processing
companies. The Dominican government has traditionally been
unwilling to enforce basic labor standards on the sugar
plantations where thousands of Haitians work. This official

indifference spawned the creation of virtual sugar fiefdoms
where Haitian workers were kept in conditions that have been
described as modern-day slavery. This dark kingdom is in
decline; 9 of 10 sugar operations privatized by the
government in the late 1990's are bankrupt, and the Haitian
communities near them have no work. The leading enterprises
Central La Romana and the Vicini Corporation are investing in
mechanization, aiming to reduce by two-thirds the employment
of canecutters.


19. (U) In recent years human rights organizations, including
the Catholic Church, have mounted a sustained and forceful
information campaign concerning both the Dominican Government
and the private corporations that exploited Haitian labor.
Their efforts have borne some fruit. Ref B notes the
improvements instituted recently on land owned by the Vicini
Corporation, the second-largest private producer of sugar in
the country.


20. (SBU) This progress has not come without casualties.
Ref C notes that the two foreign Catholic priests most
actively and publicly involved in improving conditions on the
"bateyes" (sugarcutters' villages) have both been recalled.
Belgian priest Father Pedro Ruquoy was recalled by his order
last year shortly after it was discovered that he had
declared as his own children two Dominican-born boys of
Haitian descent, in order to secure legal residency documents
for them. Father Christopher Hartley, well-known for his
outspoken and at times controversial work defending Haitians
since 1998 in San Pedro de Macoris , was recalled to New York
at the beginning of the month. Though Church spokesmen say
that the recall was routine and not politically motivated, it
appears to have been unexpected. During a meeting with
Embassy political officers in September Hartley spoke of
long-range projects he was only just beginning. He has not
responded to e-mail requests for clarification.

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... but are twisted by contradictions.
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21. (SBU) This domestic opposition to immigration is
remarkably absent in Dominican discussions of U.S.
immigration policy. During the DCM's courtesy call last
month on the Director General of Migration Carlos Amarante
Baret, visitors were treated to an extended denunciation of
U.S. deportation policy, as detrimental for families.
Dominican news agencies adopt a similarly two-faced approach,
strongly supporting Dominican deportations of Haitians on the
one hand while criticizing as overly strict U.S. immigration
and deportation policy on the other. The cover of last
Thursday's edition of one of the most widely-read newspapers
in the country featured an oversized photo of a girl of
Dominican descent crying in fear that her mother could be
deported from the United States for violations of immigration
law. Left unsaid was the fact that fewer than a thousand
Dominicans were deported from the United States for
non-criminal offenses in 2004, while more than 18,000
Haitians were deported from the Dominican Republic during the
first eight months of this year alone.


22. (U) It is ironic that government officials remain unable
or unwilling to establish effective border controls, which
could be the single most effective approach to the migratory
problems. An interagency team coordinated by Southcom and the
Embassy conducted a border survey in July 2005, responding to
a request of President Fernandez. They concluded that the
Dominican Army, charged with policing the Dominican-Haitian
border, had virtually no control in many areas of traffic
between the two countries. The report offered
recommendations for more effective controls, including the
proposal of a civilian-staffed Border Patrol. To date the
only vigorous response was the prompt announcement of the
Defense Minister that the armed forces would set up a
Specialized Corps for the Border - - staffed by the military.


23. (U) Drafted by Alexander T. Bryan.


24. (U) This report and other material can be consulted on
our SIPRNET site,
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/ .
BULLEN