Keep the pressure up against the Dominican Republic, LaRocque urges region
(Caricom.org photo)
(Caricom.org photo)

By Derwayne Wills

CARICOM leaders are set to arrive in Guyana for the regional body’s 37th Heads of Government meeting where talks on the situation of ‘stateless’ persons between Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR) will form part of the agenda.In 2013, the constitutional court of the Dominican Republic passed a ruling that called in question the citizenship of Dominicans of Haitian-descent born after 1929, around the time Haitians flooded the Dominican economy in the height of the country’s sugar boom.

The court in 2013 sought to strip Dominicans born to Haitian parentage of their citizenship. As a means of enforcing the court’s ruling, the Dominican Government begun the expulsion of those stripped of their citizenship.
Figures estimate show some 210,000 persons were affected by the court’s decision. Those who voluntarily left the Dominican Republic for fear of being expelled into Haiti, a country they know nothing about, have been spread across what are now five refugee camps along the border between the two countries.

“This is a humanitarian crisis in the making. There was a time during the Christmas holidays at one of the settlement areas where we learned of cholera flaring up again because of conditions there,” CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque told this newspaper recently.

“Caricom is the only voice that these stateless persons have had,” LaRocque said as he championed the need for the region to “keep on the political engagement and the political pressure”.

While the Dominican Republic is not a member of Caricom, it has applied some time ago and now enjoys a number of trade arrangements with the 15-member Caricom trading bloc.

Caricom has time and time again issued statements condemning the situation, which has left so many persons stateless on the borders of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

When asked whether talks at the July meeting will see some action other than the statements previously made, the Caricom chief said the regional body will continue to mount pressure against what he called a “humanitarian crisis in the making”.

LaRocque said because of the regional body being vocal on the situation as it unfolded, international organisations like the United Nations and International Office for Migration have taken noticed. “We have to keep that voice going until the situation is addressed properly,” he stated.

CSME
Haiti, which celebrated 212 years of Independence this year, joined the Caricom movement in July 2002. Although it is a full member, it is not a part of the region’s free movement arrangement through the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).

That arrangement, if successful, would allow some 11 million Haitians, the opportunity to move freely throughout the Caribbean, and for Haitian citizens to reside in Caricom member states once they are fitted within the CSME’s employment categories.

Haiti’s progress in being part of the CSME arrangement, which required a number of domestic institutional arrangements were disrupted by the 2010 earthquake, which killed some 200,000 persons there.

“We actually had an office in Haiti where we were doing a lot of interaction with the authorities at customs, trade, [and] the private sector to ramp them up in order to put in place the necessary laws and regulations to allow them to be compliant to the Caricom arrangement,” LaRocque said.

In the devastation of the 2010 earthquake, the country’s entire Foreign Ministry was demolished, killing many of the Ministry’s personnel and destroying documents which would have helped the country to finalise its CSME obligations.
Caricom has once again initiated the process for Haiti to become part of the CSME arrangement. “It will take a little while before Haiti will be able to be fully part of the CSME arrangements,” LaRocque noted.

HAITI ELECTIONS
Haiti will be represented at the Caricom meeting by the country’s Prime Minister.

Following a presidential election cycle last year in that country, which has left questions looming about the integrity of the process, Haiti has accepted a recommendation of the Organisation of American States (OAS) to hold another election in October of this year.

Haiti’s presidential elections are concluded after two rounds. The first round could see up to 50 candidates, who must gain some amount of advantage before proceeding to the next round. The second round comprises the two top candidates.

After allegations of electoral fraud in the country, there were calls for the second round of elections to be re-done. However, the Haitian Government has accepted recommendation for having both rounds re-done.

“If those who contended that the first round was so flawed that it was not legitimate, then if you do a run-off on a base that was flawed, then we do have a problem,” the Caricom chief said.

The Caricom heads of Government meeting will open in Guyana next Monday.
Haiti is expected to brief the region’s leaders on the country’s progress in elections, as well as advancing it’s partnership in the CSME.

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