How urgently Haiti and the Dominican Republic need the Schiller Institute’s program for the development of all of the island of Hispaniola and the Caribbean Basin region is seen in the disaster that ensued after Dominican President Luis Abinader announced Nov. 3 that his government will strictly enforce immigration laws, related specifically to the large number of Haitians who continue to stream across the border illegally. Abinader warned that undocumented Haitians, including pregnant women, who enter the D.R. to give birth so their children will have Dominican citizenship, would no longer have access to public hospitals for medical care. Since then, immigration officials have aggressively searched for pregnant Haitian women, some already hospitalized and on the verge of giving birth, loaded them onto buses and sent them back to Haiti. Enrique Garcia, head of the Dominican General Migration Directorate (DGM), reported that his agency has deported “hundreds” of pregnant Haitian women, Telesur reported Nov. 15.
This action has provoked an outcry from human rights organizations, the Haitian government, the UN and others. Dr. Senen Caba, president of the Dominican College of Physicians, told the daily radio show “Sol de la Mañana” that, “I think it is criminal, from every ethical point of view, to remove a woman [from the hospital] who is about to give birth,” the online daily Hoy reported Nov. 15. The Haitian situation is a complex one, he said, because “our sister nation is governed by a wealthy bourgeoisie that lacks the intelligence” to make it a viable nation. He called on the Dominican government to respect the dignity of the Haitian women who are about to give birth, and treat them humanely. The problem of immigration should be handled politically, he said, not fought out in hospital corridors.
No one but a Malthusian fanatic would say that Abinader’s actions are acceptable; they have intensified tensions, while giving local hotheads a pretext to warn of an imminent invasion by Haitian gangs and tell citizens to arm themselves immediately. But the Dominican President is also desperate, attempting to handle the Covid pandemic and its related economic crisis, and overwhelmed by the large, daily influx of poor Haitians for whom his country lacks the resources to provide services. He has issued urgent pleas for help to the U.S., the EU, the Organization of American States, the UN, and regional partners, emphasizing he has no ability to handle his own country’s problems, let alone Haiti’s. Thus far, with the exception of the Schiller Institute, his pleas have been ignored.
