CARIBBEAN LETTER
One October afternoon, in a few minutes, Rose-Merline Florvil’s life turned upside down. “I was at home and someone knocked on the door. “I went to open it: it was the immigration services.”says this 24-year-old Haitian citizen, expelled from the Dominican Republic, on Friday, October 11. “I didn’t have time to get dressed. “They grabbed me, they threw me in the back of a truck.”continues, with her voice breaking with emotion, this pastry chef from Arcahaie, a port city located not far from Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.
Fleeing poverty, but above all from the rampant insecurity caused by criminal gangs that have been spreading terror in Haiti for several years, the young woman settled in Santo Domingo, the capital of the border country, in May. She had reunited with her partner, a house painter who had emigrated three years earlier, and was looking for work. The couple was separated due to the sudden arrest of the young woman, who was four months pregnant. “They caught me without my husband: he was not at home”M continues.me Florvil.
After several hours of driving, in transport condition. “deplorable”The migrant was returned to the Haitian side of the border, which is 376 kilometers long and winds from north to south of the island of Hispaniola. There she was treated by a Haitian non-governmental organization, the Support Group for Returnees and Refugees, in the town of Belladère, in the center of the island. Having lost her phone during this nightmare trip, the young woman is still desperately trying to contact her partner and loved ones. “I no longer have money to go home, I have nothing to eat”explains M.me Florvil, sobbing into the phone that a member of this organization lent him.
Since the beginning of October, expulsions of Haitian nationals residing in the Dominican Republic have increased, such as the young pastry chef from Arcahaie, following a decision by the Dominican president, Luis Abinader. On October 2, during a defense council with the army’s top brass, the leader made the decision with immediate effect to expel “up to 10,000 immigrants per week”according to a presidential press release. The measure, supposed “reduce the excess immigrant population” in the country, you must be accompanied by “strict protocols that guarantee respect for the human rights and dignity of those expelled”add the text.
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