HAITIAN Consulate Staff Arrested In The Dominican Republic

PORT-AU-PRINCE,  Haiti, December 18, 2021 - TeleSUR - The Haitian Embassy in Santo Domingo expressed its "surprise" at the arrest of two of its diplomats by the Dominican Republic Army on Thursday.

Williamson Jean and Jackson Lorrain were arrested on their way to a farm in Montecristi province, where they hoped to deliver 11 passports and produce IDs for the hundreds of Haitian workers waiting for them. This visit had been previously agreed with the owners of the farm.

The military confiscated the passports and two computer equipment used to produce personal identification cards, which are documents and materials owned by the Haitian state.

The arrest occurred despite the fact that Jean and Lorrain showed diplomatic identifications whose authenticity was later confirmed by the head of the consulate, Francois Guerrier.

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This is not the first time that something like this happens. Previously, the head of the Haitian consulate had also "been attacked in a military check-up just when he was traveling to carry out similar activities."

For this reason, the Embassy requested "greater and effective collaboration" from the Dominican authorities in order to carry out documentation activities for Haitian immigrants who work on agricultural plantations.

The incident occurred at a time when the Dominican Republic has strengthened border surveillance and launched a series of measures to curb irregular immigration from Haiti.

 In November, the authorities of the Dominican Republic  returned 107 young girls since the deportations of illegal Haitian migrants intensified, amid the tense diplomatic relationship between the two countries and the increase in insecurity in Haiti, according to information published by the Le Nouvelliste newspaper.

Santo Domingo tightened immigration controls since the end of October and limited access to public hospitals to undocumented people, putting thousands of illegal Haitians at risk.

Migration agents even entered the clinics, took the pregnant women out and led them to buses.

The Ministry of Feminine Condition and Women’s Rights expressed its dismay at the treatment to which the women were subjected to, describing it as “hunting down Haitian nationals” and condemning the “inhuman deportations.”

For its part, the United Nations (UN) office in the Dominican Republic demanded the cessation of returns of pregnant women and recalled that the actions violate the process established in the protocols and international conventions that prohibit the deportation of pregnant women, infants, the elderly and the sick.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also called on the government of Luis Abinader last Tuesday to respect the principle of non-deportation, protect pregnant women in mobility and guarantee them access to health.