On 6 July 2015, a Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) request was approved to assist the Haiti Red Cross Society with its support of the Haitian migrants migrating from the Dominican Republic. Soon after this DREF operation was approved, the American Red Cross (AmCross) extended bilateral support to the Haiti Red Cross Society to provide assistance to the affected population. As a result, the National Society decided to cancel this request, and no expenses were incurred against the approved budget. The Netherlands Red Cross and European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) had made DREF replenishment for this operation, which will be returned to the donor.
Situation analysis
In 2013, the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic issued a judgment (TC 168/13), which changed the immigration status of estimated 400,000 people, including 300,000 people of Haitian origin. On 22 May 2014, the Dominican Congress passed legislation establishing a registration procedure and regularization of people of foreign origin born in the Dominican Republic between 1929 and 2007. Known as the Special Regime and Naturalization Law 169-14, this legislation established two distinct groups:
Group A: consisting of 24,000 heads of families with members of their families (a total estimated 100,000 people) who were born in the Dominican Republic and registered with the civil registry office;
Group B: 55,000 heads of families with members of their families (200,000 people) who were born in the Dominican Republic and have not been registered with the civil registry office.
On 27 February 2015, the president of the Dominican Republic declared that the registration phase would end on 1 February 2015, and at that time, a total of 8,755 people belonging to Group B had been registered. A total of 40 per cent of the files were deemed admissible for regularization and the remaining 60 per cent were rejected due to deficiencies in the information submitted. No official information was provided regarding Group A
The established deadline for the regularization process was 17 June 2015 without an extension. In addition, it was established that any people who had not regularized their status by the 17June deadline would be considered illegal migrants and subject to deportation proceedings.
In addition to the above two groups, a third category is composed of an estimated population of more than 300,000 undocumented Haitian migrants. It is estimated that approximately 250,000 of these people do not have the required documentation to remain in the Dominican Republic.
In 2015, there has been an increase of migrant arrivals in Haiti crossing the border from the Dominical Republic. The IOM has been monitoring the flow of migrants from the Dominican Republic and Haiti, a task that began in mid-June.
Dominican authorities have reported that in the period from mid-June until 6 August, over 66,000 Haitian migrants have voluntarily entered Haiti, and many of these have used transport provided by the Dominican government.
As of 16 June, the IOM had interviewed 1,659 families (4,628 individuals) who said they had recently crossed the border into Haiti. About 81 per cent of these individuals stated they had returned on their own initiative and the remaining people declared that the Dominican authorities had forced them to leave. The IOM monitoring of the border between the two countries began on 17 June after the expiration of the registration period provided for in the National Plan for the Regularization of Foreigners (PNRE) in the Dominican Republic.
Four migrant settlements have been established on the Haitian side of the border, located in front of the Dominican town of Pedernales. The people in these settlements live in precarious conditions and lack the most essential services.
The majority of the migratory movement from the Dominican Republic occurs unofficially, and it is often controlled by informal traffickers. Migrants are particularly at risk when crossing borders in this manner or when traveling by sea. On 9 April 2015, a boat carrying migrants capsized near the coastal commune of Borgn in Haiti’s North-west department, resulting in the death of 17 people and the disappearance of 19 others, including 7 children. Twelve people were rescued