Photo Credit: Refugees International
11/20/2006

Exploitative migrant labor agreements and years of unregulated migration have created a permanent underclass of people of Haitian descent in the Caribbean, including in the Dominican Republic. An estimated two to three million individuals, 20-25 percent of people residing in the Dominican Republic, are not documented. The situation in Haiti continues to cause people to leave the country for a better life elsewhere, but many of them continue to face violations of their human rights in the places where they seek protection or where their children are born and have a right to a nationality. Common needs of countries in the region to document citizens, combat human trafficking, and meet labor needs would be best addressed in the context of meeting their international human rights obligations, a method known to prevent refugee flows. With the support of the international community, the Dominican Republic and Haiti need to develop policies which ensure that the rights of stateless persons and their children are upheld.