Sometimes life has challenges for everyone and they are forced to make decisions that could make their lives change. These challenges can be either be man-made or be caused by mother nature. When these disasters happen, many citizens of that specific part of the country may have to be forced to leave. Climate refugees are people who are forced to leave because of an earthquake, drought, famine, and many more disasters. These climate refugees can be considered under the term “Forced Migration”. Forced migration, to my understanding, is when certain people are forced to be displaced to another place. January 12, 2010, a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, killing more than 200,000 people, and injuring over 90,000 people. Many haitians had no other choice but to leave Haiti, because everything that they had there was lost and ruined. Haiti borders with Dominican Republic, so it was easier for Haitians to cross the border and look for a better life in the island of the Hispaniola. The problem with Haitians crossing this border was that many of them had no legal documentation to stay in the Dominican Republic, they were working illegally in the island. Currently, many of the people who were able to get their legal documents together are forced leave the island. According to the Human Rights Watch, “A 2013 court ruling in Dominican Republic retroactively removed citizenship from perhaps tens of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent, many of whom have since been deported, together with Haitian migrants, back to Haiti where they live in poor humanitarian conditions”. Many Haitians are in the Dominican Republic because their are looking for their basic needs, the Dominican government should try to get legal documentation of illegal Haitians and let the ones that are legal get a permit to show the situation that they are under.
I remember the day of this earthquake like if it was yesterday. I would never forget that devastating look of Haitians while they were being transmitted on live television. Tuesday, January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude hit the epicentre of the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. This earthquake was devastating to this poor country. It killed over 200,000 people, injuring over 90,000 and leaving homeless thousands of hundreds of people. For this country, an earthquake of this magnitude is the last thing that they needed. According Patricia Weiss Fagen in her discussion paper Receiving Haitian Migrants in the Context of the 2010 Earthquake, “The 2010 quake ranks far and away as the worst single disaster to strike Haiti, but Haiti has endured a long string of major disasters, political, economic and natural” (5). I have always been aware that Haiti’s government is very corrupt and the way of living there was not the best. Many people used to cross borders to Dominican Republic to look for a better opportunity of life. According to the Nansen Initiative, “…the first actions by Dominican authorities in response to the 2010 earthquake were exceptional. Almost immediately after the earthquake, an estimated 160,000 Haitians assembled at points along the Dominican border” (11). After this natural disaster, many people lost everything and there was nothing left in their country so they were forced to migrate to another place.
Forced migration is something that could be somebody’s last resource. This type of migration happens when the country that you’re in is distress due to natural disaster, environmental disaster and even man-made disasters. Haitians were forced to leave behind their lives in their home country, and start a new one. They did not have a choice if they wanted to survive. In Haiti, resources were scarce and the people who decided to stay had to live in campsites. According to an Australian article, covering the update after 6 years of this earthquake, “Almost 60,000 people are still homeless and living in camps, and the common struggle to rebuild has done nothing to close Haiti’s deep political divisions.” (ABC News). At this point, Haitians are playing the survival game.
Being a climate migrant is something that may bring a lot of trouble to the host country, in this case, Dominican Republic. Even before the earthquake happened, Haitians would go to Dominican Republic to cause trouble within the Dominican community. From my own experience, I have seen Haitians steal land and pretend is theirs, trespassing property or stealing. Some of them go to the extend of robbing people. Dominican Republic is not a rich country either and sometimes we can’t even handle our people, imagine other people who don’t even care about the land and citizens. But all Haitians are not bad, some of them escaped from the disaster that happened because they wanted a better life.
Currently, the government of Dominican Republic is deporting hundreds of Haitians. Some of them are living because they choose to, but there are Haitians that the police have to force them to leave. As bad as it sounds, the Dominican government is giving Haitians an opportunity to register with its government and avoid being returned back. In an article by NBC News, Griselda Nevares states “…estimated 275,000 immigrants have registered with the government, less than half of the total population of immigrants living in the Dominican Republic without legal status.” There are thousands of people who are actually attempting to do what is right and following the laws. But on the other hand, they are many of them that are taking the wrong route and just doing illegal stuff.
The migration plan that helps all the Haitians immigrants is called “National Regularization Act”. This act helps immigrant get their documentation legal so they can stay in the country. According to the Embassy of the Dominican Republic, “This process has allowed us to register hundreds of thousands of people living outside the legal system and make decisions based on the facts of their individual situation. Also this act is supported by the Special Law 169-14. This law has two beneficiaries, Group A and Group B.
Special Law 169-14 is a policy that orders a census of the country and provides proper documentation to populations that were vulnerable… Group A consists of people born in the Dominican Republic and children of undocumented foreign parents. These individuals possess some kind of document issued by the Dominican Republic certifying them as nationals. Group B is made up of children of foreign parents born in irregular immigration status in the Dominican Republic who do not have any documentation.
This law allows immigrants, mostly Haitians to get their documentation right and follow the right procedures to become legal in the country.
This topic of Haitians going to the Dominican Republic matters because it is a current problem. Haitians are going to the Dominican republic to seek for a better life but at the end of the day they are coming to ruin our country with delinquency. After the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, many people were forced to leave Haiti for good and leave everything behind. In my opinion, since Haitians are coming to a country that do not belong to them, they are ruining it since they don’t have any responsibility about it. Many Haitians are fighting to get their proper documentation so they can stay in the country legally. Currently, the Dominican government is deporting the Haitians that do not have proper documentation. My solution to this proper may sound simple but can start helping organizing the people. Haitian immigrants should get the proper legal documents so they can stay in the country to work or live. Those people seeking to get the legal Dominican documentation should also be aware that they will have to bring documentation and prove why they want to stay in the country.