G. Jefferson Price III: Racism Lingers in Hispaniola
[G. Jefferson Price III is a former foreign correspondent and an editor at The Sun who has been traveling on behalf of Catholic Relief Services.]
The name of the river here that separates Haiti and the Dominican Republic is a reminder of the dark and bloody history of the two countries that share the island known as Hispaniola.
It is called the Massacre River.
Whatever the reason for that name, it must evoke an event seven decades ago when the Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, ordered the army to massacre all Haitians found outside of the country's sugar plantations, where they were then, and are now, a source of indispensable cheap labor. Historians estimate that thousands were killed during that time in 1937.
General Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, but the legacy of anti-Haitian hatred that he nurtured survives to this day. Since 1937, there have been no massacres of Haitian natives, or people believed to be of Haitian descent on that scale. But in a pattern of behavior that smacks of racism, they are discriminated against, harassed, often deported in large numbers without the opportunity to appeal, and sometimes killed, human rights and foreign observers say.
Mass deportations are the main focus these days. In Haiti, where the economy has been ruined and unemployment is astronomical, it is easy for a Haitian to cross into the Dominican Republic to work in the sugar cane and banana plantations and lately in the service industry attached to the Dominican Republic's growing tourist industry. As many illegal immigrants are welcomed in parts of the U.S. economy as a source of cheap labor, so are Haitians welcomed in parts of the Dominican economy.
And when the economy goes sour, deportation of illegal immigrants tends to rise. The difference between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic lies in the way it's done. For most in the U.S., there's a legal process. In the Dominican Republic, it tends to be a process of round-up and expulsion without any right of appeal, according to human rights and foreign observers.
And, according to these observers, the deportees often include Dominicans of Haitian descent who have lived there for decades, and even Dominican nationals who happen to look like Haitians because they are black. In the process, these observers say, the deportees often are forced to leave behind family members, all personal belongings, property and funds.
Father Lissaint Antoine, director of the Jesuit Refugee Center in Ouanaminthe, says that in 2004, some 14,000 people were deported. "Those are the ones we know about. It could be as many as 25,000," he said.
"There is a very nationalistic movement in the Dominican Republic," he said. "When things go badly, they cast Haitians as the problem."
The name of the river here that separates Haiti and the Dominican Republic is a reminder of the dark and bloody history of the two countries that share the island known as Hispaniola.
It is called the Massacre River.
Whatever the reason for that name, it must evoke an event seven decades ago when the Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, ordered the army to massacre all Haitians found outside of the country's sugar plantations, where they were then, and are now, a source of indispensable cheap labor. Historians estimate that thousands were killed during that time in 1937.
General Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, but the legacy of anti-Haitian hatred that he nurtured survives to this day. Since 1937, there have been no massacres of Haitian natives, or people believed to be of Haitian descent on that scale. But in a pattern of behavior that smacks of racism, they are discriminated against, harassed, often deported in large numbers without the opportunity to appeal, and sometimes killed, human rights and foreign observers say.
Mass deportations are the main focus these days. In Haiti, where the economy has been ruined and unemployment is astronomical, it is easy for a Haitian to cross into the Dominican Republic to work in the sugar cane and banana plantations and lately in the service industry attached to the Dominican Republic's growing tourist industry. As many illegal immigrants are welcomed in parts of the U.S. economy as a source of cheap labor, so are Haitians welcomed in parts of the Dominican economy.
And when the economy goes sour, deportation of illegal immigrants tends to rise. The difference between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic lies in the way it's done. For most in the U.S., there's a legal process. In the Dominican Republic, it tends to be a process of round-up and expulsion without any right of appeal, according to human rights and foreign observers.
And, according to these observers, the deportees often include Dominicans of Haitian descent who have lived there for decades, and even Dominican nationals who happen to look like Haitians because they are black. In the process, these observers say, the deportees often are forced to leave behind family members, all personal belongings, property and funds.
Father Lissaint Antoine, director of the Jesuit Refugee Center in Ouanaminthe, says that in 2004, some 14,000 people were deported. "Those are the ones we know about. It could be as many as 25,000," he said.
"There is a very nationalistic movement in the Dominican Republic," he said. "When things go badly, they cast Haitians as the problem."