The UK-based Haiti Support Group has issued an urgent warning:
“Last week, the Dominican high court ruled that citizens – people born and raised as Dominicans in the country – can now be “stripped” of their nationality.This outrageous decision will affect anyone born to parents who either did not have the correct documentation to live in the country legally at the time as well as those deemed to be “in transit”. It goes without saying that Haitians will be the primary target of this retroactive legislation although the decision can be applied to anyone the authorities consider to be the offspring of foreign nationals, including those who are unable to provide the approriate documentation to demonstrate the legal status of their parents. It will no doubt be applied subjectively and used as a state-led tool for ethnic cleansing against people of Haitian descent as it is the one migrant group that will find it impossible to prove the “legitimate” migratory status of their parents . The ruling is a truly insulting infraction of Haitians’ human rights as this is the same group of people that was brought to the Dominican Republic by the Dominican authorities to work for little or no money in cheap labour on the sugarcane fields and more recently in construction.”
The official petition against this measure is at https://secure.avaaz.org/es/petition/Evitar_el_despojo_de_la_nacionalidad_y_garantizar_los_DDHH_de_dominicanosas_de_ascendencia_haitiana_en_Rep_Dominicana/?dOiXCfb
Here are some links to the English-speaking media so far on this story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/dominican-court-ruling-strips-citizenship-from-thousands-of-offspring-of-haitian-migrants/2013/09/26/6185b5d4-26e7-11e3-9372-92606241ae9c_story.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/27/dominican-republic-citize_n_4002844.html
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Dom-Rep-court-ruling-strips-thousands-of-citizenship_15145546
In the UK, contact Eve Hayes de Kalaf, Programmes Co-ordinator Haiti Support Group – 07426 115 378
www.haitisupportgroup.org
