Nearly 3 years ago, I wrote about reports out of the Dominican Republic that Haitian workers and immigrants were being subjected to the most extreme forms of xenophobia and discrimination, and many were losing their lives. This post stirred up a lot of emotions, and it appears that now, 3 years later, things aren’t much better for Haitians in the D.R. The Inter Press Service reports on recent hate crimes and reprisals which are driving Haitians out of the Dominican Republic.

“A group of Dominicans armed with pistols, machetes and knives came to take revenge on us. I broke my leg trying to escape from my house, which was on fire. It’s not fair that all Haitians should have to pay for the crime of one,” Elena Piti, a Haitian mother of seven who lives in the Dominican Republic, told IPS.

“I’m thinking of going back to Haiti, because I’m afraid that something might happen to me. Besides, I have nothing left here. I lost everything: my house, my money and my job,” said Franklin Jean, who IPS found hiding out in a precarious shelter in the surrounding fields.

The violence is reportedly a reprisal for a crime committed by a Haitian man against an elderly Dominican farmer. IPS reports that a mob burned down 25 houses in a Haitian settlement of El Cerro.

In addition to this recent incident, it appears that overall treatment of Haitians in the Dominican Republic is getting worse — or has at least remained the same. Mass deportations, xenophobic beatings and lynchings aren’t rare. And everyday life for those spared this fate isn’t all that easy either:

Skin colour prejudice is one of the motives for discrimination, according to a nationwide survey on Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic, “Encuesta sobre Inmigrantes Haitianos en República Dominicana”, published in 2004 by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO).

In the survey, 71 percent of Haitians interviewed said they had been verbally abused by Dominicans because of their country of origin and skin colour, in their neighbourhoods as well as at their places of work. “Haitian devil,” “Negro” (considered a derogatory term in the Dominican Republic), “sorcerer” and “get out of the country” were the most frequently mentioned insults.

And the mass deportations continue. Over 400 Haitians were deported during the last week of October, according to IPS. Dominican Today reports that they left voluntarily as a result of the violence spawned by the reprisals. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that life in the D.R. for Haitians is, at most, a living hell, and at the very least extremely difficult. The honess is on both governments to put a stop to this immediately.

Via / IPS