Dominican Republic says will expel up to 10,000 Haitian migrants a week
Al Jazeera
Haiti is reeling from deadly gang violence, hunger and instability, prompting the UN to warn against sending people back.
The Dominican Republic says it plans to expel as many as 10,000 Haitian migrants per week, despite a longstanding call from the United Nations to end forced returns to Haiti amid a surge in gang violence there.
Homero Figueroa, a Dominican presidential spokesman, said on Wednesday that the “operation aims to reduce the excessive migrant populations detected in Dominican communities”.
Figueroa added that the expulsions to Haiti, which shares a border with the Dominican Republic on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, would begin “immediately”.
The announcement comes just days after the UN reported that at least 3,661 people had been killed in Haiti in the first half of 2024 amid the “senseless” gang violence that has engulfed the country.
Haitian leaders warned last week that they are “nowhere near winning” the battle against the armed groups, which for months have been carrying out attacks and kidnappings across the capital of Port-au-Prince and in other parts of the country.
