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Dominican Republic resumes deportations of Haitian migrants
Authorities resumed mass deportations of Haitian migrants Thursday after a brief lull, and government officers began demanding passports at bus stations as the country deals with a cholera scare.
Immigration agents in the capital of Santo Domingo targeted buses arriving from other cities, fining at least 30 drivers for allowing illegal migrants aboard.
Advocates for migrants accused officials of targeting people with darker skin and of sending teenagers across the border into Haiti by themselves. At least 900 Haitians were deported last week.
"They tie their hands to the hands of others. It's humiliating," said Sonia Pierre, director for the Dominican-Haitian Women Movement. "They send them off without anything, without money, and their communication is cut off."
She also said some people who were born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents had been wrongly deported because they didn't have documents with them.