Dominican Republic starts mass deportations of Haitians and expels nearly 11,000 in a week

SANTO DOMINGO (AP) — The Dominican Republic said Tuesday it has deported or repatriated nearly 11,000 Haitians in the past week, fulfilling a pledge to do so weekly as neighboring Haiti scrambles to handle the influx while besieged by gang violence and poverty.

The Dominican government announced last week that it would deport up to 10,000 Haitians a week, citing an “excess” of immigrants as relations between the countries that share the island of Hispaniola continue to sour. These are the largest such deportations in recent history there.

The announcement prompted Haitian officials to request an emergency meeting at the Organization of American States, where Haitian permanent representative Gandy Thomas called the deportations “a strategy of ethnic cleansing” and “a discriminatory campaign against Haitians due to their nationality and color of their skin.” Thomas called for dialogue and a “respectful solution,” saying the deportations will “worsen the fragility of our infrastructure while the deportees will arrive with no support, no resources and no ties to their community.”