REFLECTION
SOLIDARITY: A POWER WEAPON AGAINST INJUSTICE
Juan
Manuel Camacho
In September 2013,
the Constitutional Tribunal of the Dominican Republic passed the law 168/13, which snatched away citizenship from people who had been registered as Dominicans for eight decades (since 1929), but whose parents and/or grandparents
were “irregular migrants” in the Dominican Republic. The law above all directly affects thousands of people of Haitian descent who until now were
under the protection of the Constitution and of the laws in place at the moment
of their birth. It is estimated that this law has affected about 2.3% of
Dominicans and its implementation means the loss of citizenship (they became
country-less). For many of them this law has a retroactive consequence based on
the “alleged crime” of their parents and/or grandparents who came to and lived
in this country. For these Dominicans, who are for the most part young, this law makes them criminals
just for the fact of being born on this side of the island.
The law has not only
hurt thousands of Dominicans, but is feeding the rest of the population with an
anti-Haitian ideology that is deeply rooted in complex historical and social events. This
ideology has been latent, but now is made explicit and legal, therefore creating
more discomfort and social conflict. Self-proclaimed “nationalistic” sectors
have taken to the streets to support the law of the Constitutional Tribunal, denying the injustice that this decision entails. Once again, what looms in the
background is the resentment towards the Haitian people and their presence in the
Dominican Republic. This injustice should be strongly condemned. It is a grave injustice
that is being committed to this group of Dominicans of Haitian descent, in that they are all Dominicans born and raised in the Dominican Republic. Their
parents and/or grandparents were the ones who crossed the border, not them.
Since enactment of the
law 168/13 in September 2013, the Dominicans of Haitian descent have struggled
to regain their right to citizenship. The debate over the past months has been
on a humanitarian solution for the victims of the law, as was promised by the
president and other public authorities after the law’s promulgation. Solidarity
of international organizations and several civil and religious institutions in
the Dominican Republic, including La Sagrada Familia, have pressured the
Dominican government to solve the problem created by the Constitutional
Tribunal’s law 168/13. Long debates and solidarity gave birth to the law 169/14
which was promulgated by the Dominican government in May 2014. This law is
twofold in that it establishes a plan to regularize all undocumented immigrants
in the Dominican territory, and sets a naturalization plan for all those born
and registered irregularly in the Dominican Republic. This law was celebrated
with joy as it opened the possibility to either attain or retain rightful
citizenship. From La Sagrada Familia,
we viewed the law 168/14 as a great achievement and as an act of goodwill by
the Dominican government to enact a law to improve the situation of those who
were in legal limbo due to Constitutional Tribunal’s law 168/13.
Little did we know
what awaited us in the coming months. When the process of regularization and
naturalization began in the summer of 2014, some but not all offices of the
Dominican government began to function properly. Today, there are provinces in which officials are not carrying out what the law 169/14 provides,
and in others, the officials have been adding modifications, notes and footnotes
to the law just to complicate things. Several provincial offices have managed
to ask for new requirements, which were not covered by the provisions of the
law: this is the case of the office in Azua, the province in the southern part of
the Dominican Republic in which the parish of La Sagrada Familia is located.
Furthermore, most
Haitian nationals living in this area do not have any documents of
identification from their country, and those documents are essential for the
process of regularization in Dominican Republic. In order to get the three
essential documents: birth certificate, identification card and passport the
person must pay around 200 dollars in any Haitian consulate in the Dominican
Republic, which many Haitians cannot afford. The Dominican government, the
international community, and the Haitians have pressured the Haitian government
to provide their nationals with the possibility to get the three documents
needed for the regularization plan in a way that is more accessible for people.
The Haitian government then established a program called: “Identification and
Documentation Program for Haitian Immigrants in the Dominican Republic.” This
program is intended to provide the three essential identity documents: birth
certificate, identification card and passport for 25 dollars. Again, many were
glad at what looked like a new step to advance the process, but currently and
much to our surprise and sadness, things are not working as expected.
From La Sagrada Familia parish, we are in contact with the Haitian Embassy in Santo Domingo
trying to set a time to organize the possibility for Haitians in our parish to acquire
these documents. It has been impossible to get a clear answer from them. Each
call and visit is met with excuses and delays that have further exhausted the
patience of some and disappointed the hopes of others. It's sad for us. The Haitians
who live in the Dominican Republic are becoming increasingly disillusioned with
Haitian and Dominican authorities, as it seems, there is little willingness to
make change. On our part, we will continue to accompany the impoverished and desperate
population of Haitian immigrants in our parish, but it has become increasingly
difficult not to lose hope. It would seem, indeed, that this absurd legal
odyssey is endless.
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