On August 16, 2024, Luis Abinader was sworn in for a second term as president of the Dominican Republic. During his previous term in office, Amnesty International condemned worrying human rights violations in the context of the country’s migration policy against Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent by migration agents, police and members of the armed forces assisting the General Directorate of Migration (DGM) in migration operations. Amnesty International has stressed the urgent need for Dominican institutions to eradicate racial profiling, structural racism and racial discrimination, and to guarantee respect for the human dignity and physical integrity of Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent.
“This new government must make an unequivocal commitment to overcoming the human rights failures that we have condemned and documented in recent months. A migration policy that guarantees respect for the dignity and human rights of all people is essential,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
Since 2022, the Dominican Republic has become the country deporting the highest number of Haitians on the move, despite the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) appeal to states in November 2022 to stop forced returns to Haiti. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 208,166 Haitian nationals were deported in 2023, including more than 20,000 adolescents and children. During 2024, as the severe crisis in Haiti continues, the Dominican government has deported 98,594 people, including more than 5,000 adolescents and children.
Amnesty International has found that many of these deportations have been collective expulsions, in violation of the principle of non-refoulement and the right to asylum of Haitian nationals. These collective expulsions are contrary to the Dominican Republic’s international obligations, as they do not allow for an individual assessment of the protection needs of each person concerned, nor of the risks that people would face if they were returned to Haiti. Moreover, they are being carried out by migration officials on the basis of racial profiling and discrimination, thus failing to guarantee the principle of equality and non-discrimination.
A critical moment in Luis Abinader’s previous term in office was the conflict over the canal on the Massacre River in October 2023. The Dominican government announced the indefinite suspension of visas for Haitians, militarization of the border and introduction of biometric controls, and closure of the border to migration. Since then, various public forces such as the army and the police have been authorized to carry out migration operations. For months, the Dominican government suspended the channels for Haitians to renew their study, residence and work visas in the Dominican Republic, leaving people in a situation of irregular migration and separating families. The suspension of visas for Haitians, which is still in place, has meant the closure of the few legal channels that were available for entry into the country, limiting the options for family reunification or making it impossible to access study and work opportunities.
Local organizations have informed Amnesty International that these measures resulted in an increase in the number of people detained, as well as in the number of collective deportations.
Amnesty also received alarming testimonies from victims and local civil society organizations, and examined videos showing the discriminatory and dehumanizing manner in which migration officials operated, the way in which the transfers of individuals were carried out, and the conditions in detention centers.
Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab verified 12 videos published between July 2023 and July 2024 in which persons of alleged Haitian nationality are detained by the Dominican Republic’s DGM. In two videos, children are seen together with men and women inside DGM trucks. Two other videos show people being forcibly loaded into these trucks, including a man being carried by four agents and a woman who claims not to be of Haitian nationality. Five other verified videos show a detention center with no beds or chairs and dozens of men sleeping crowded together on the floor.
Violence and excessive use of force are recurring themes in the testimonies of victims. Amnesty International has heard accounts of raids without warrants, carried out by non-uniformed and unidentified agents, who used violence and stole belongings, even at night while people were asleep. During these operations, a report of sexual violence against a 14-year-old girl came to light in April.
“Organizations working on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic continually report cases of deportees being beaten by the Dominican authorities,’’ said Johanna Cilano Pelaez, regional researcher for the Caribbean at Amnesty International.
The measures authorizing the participation of the National Police, the armed forces and other public security forces in migration operations have led to a fragmentation of roles in migration matters and to discretionary and opaque procedures. Also of concern is the lack of human rights training for these law enforcement agencies to ensure that migrants are treated with dignity and without discrimination.
Amnesty International has been made aware of corruption, extortion and possible influence peddling by the authorities during arrests, transfers and detention in the course of migration operations, including in the border area.
Multiple testimonies indicate that this fragmentation of roles leads to confusion about the pathways that migrants and persons seeking international protection should follow after detention, fosters a widespread network of extortion of migrants, and limits access to justice for Haitian migrants, who are afraid to approach institutions such as the police or the public prosecution service when they are victims of crime. This particularly limits the reporting of gender-based violence against Haitian migrant women and girls. Although there have been investigations involving migration officials, the authorities have not taken consistent and concrete measures to ensure access to justice for migrants who have suffered human rights violations.
Amnesty International has received information that the procedures people go through after being detained in migration operations vary depending on the authority arresting them. When detained by DGM migration officials, they are put into trucks known as “camionas”. Although these have a capacity of 30 to 40 people, reports indicate that they take many more in practice. Detainees are beaten and put inside forcibly, often with no room to move and little air to breathe. They are left there for long hours in high temperatures before being transferred to a holding center, without access to water, sanitation or food, putting their physical integrity at serious risk.
Amnesty International has received reports of the appalling conditions in some of the holding centers where people are taken to have their migration status “assessed” prior to deportation. The facilities do not have adequate services or space, with overcrowding, lack of access to water and food, restrictions on communication with family members or lawyers, and confiscation of mobile phones. The responsible authorities do not ask or assess whether any of those held have a medical condition that requires attention, and detainees are not allowed access to apply for international protection. Amnesty has also received reports of women being subjected to sexual violence by the authorities in these holding centers and during the deportation process, including groping, comments about their bodies, and demands for sexual favors in exchange for their release. In some cases, these situations escalate to rape by the authorities.
These reports suggest violations of the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and/or degrading treatment in the context of migration operations.
Amnesty International has learned that Black people, both Dominicans and foreigners, have been arbitrarily detained on the basis of racial profiling and for deportation purposes. This puts Dominicans of Haitian descent at risk, including beneficiaries of Law No. 169-14, which establishes “a special regime for persons born in the national territory who were irregularly enrolled in the Dominican civil registry, and regarding naturalization”.
Amnesty International has been informed that children and adolescents have been handed over by the National Council for Childhood and Adolescence (CONANI) to the Haitian authorities despite the fact that there are no protocols in place for such handovers or mechanisms to guarantee the principle of the best interests of the child, their human rights and their safety, disregarding the constitutional and international obligations of the authorities as established in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations guidelines and the inter-American principles of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which prohibit the detention of children and adolescents and oblige the state to guarantee the principle of the best interests of the child and the family.
“President Abinader, through CONANI, must guarantee the best interests of the child, and refrain from deporting and detaining Haitian children on the basis of their migration status or that of their mother and/or father,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
In accordance with international human rights norms and standards, states must uphold the best interests of the child, together with the right to liberty and family life, through laws, policies and practices that allow children to remain with family members or guardians in a community setting and without being placed in custody until their migration status is resolved and the best interests of the child are assessed, as well as prior to their return. The detention of any migrant child must be prohibited by law, and this prohibition must be fully enforced.
Organizations in Haiti have reported that CONANI is failing to meet the standards for the protection of children on the move and are particularly concerned that children continue to be deported to areas where there are no adequate authorities or organizations present, such as in the town of Malpasse in Haiti, which borders Jimaní in the Dominican Republic, despite knowing that access to Malpasse is currently controlled by criminal gangs.
‘We condemn the deportation of children. These actions call into question the commitment of President Abinader’s government to the safety and well-being of children,’’ Piquer added.
In relation to the profiling, detention and deportation of pregnant women, Amnesty International has found that the intimidating effect of such acts puts their lives and health at serious risk. According to testimonies collected, some pregnant Haitian women living on sugar cane plantations (bateyes) or those in need of postnatal care do not seek medical attention for fear of detention and deportation when visiting public hospitals or leaving their communities. This deprives them of adequate and timely health care options, or forces them to seek private care, which has a significant impact on their income. International organizations working on the border have confirmed to Amnesty International the persistence of this discriminatory practice.
“Migrants and persons in need of international protection should not be subjected to punitive measures such as detention. Irregular migration status is not a crime. The widespread application of measures restricting liberty on the basis of irregular migration status in the country leads to arbitrary detentions and goes beyond the legitimate interest of President Abinader’s government to manage migration,’’ said Johanna Cilano Pelaez.
President Abinader’s government has the opportunity to change course and honor its human rights commitments. In this regard, it must refrain from forcibly returning both Haitian nationals on the move and Dominican nationals and end collective expulsions.
Amnesty International calls on the government of the Dominican Republic to take urgent action to combat structural racism in the country. Those responsible for human rights violations and other abuses must be investigated and punished, and concrete measures must be taken to eliminate and prevent racial violence and discrimination in migration operations, particularly in the case of children and pregnant women.
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