Guest Post by Bridget Wooding (OBMICA) On 2 October, the Dominican Republic’s Migration Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior and Police announced an upscaled operation “to deport 10,000 Haitians each week.” This decision had been taken by the Defence and National Security Council, headed up by President Luis Abinader. According to the Council’s directive, […]
Dominican Republic Deportations Surge as Authorities Announce Opening of New Detention Centre
Since our last update in December 2022, the Dominican Republic has continued to step up its policy of mass deportations of Haitians, violating the rights and dignity of non-nationals despite numerous calls for authorities to moderate their actions. To facilitate these deportations, the General Directorate of Immigration has announced plans to establish a new immigration […]
Dominican Republic: Covid-19 and Detention
In the past three months, Dominican Republic authorities have significantly stepped up migration controls and forced removals of Haitians, including amongst them pregnant women arrested in hospitals, prompting international condemnation. The country, which has historically pursued a policy of mass deportations, removed more than 60,204 people to Haiti between 1 August and the end of […]
Dominican Republic: Covid-19 and Detention
There has been a sharp uptick in anti-migrant policies and practices in the Dominican Republic in recent months, which have been fuelled in part by COVID-related restrictions and growing public backlash aimed at Haitians. Haiti and the Dominican Republic have a long history of political and racial tensions, often related to migration pressures. The Committee […]
Dominican Republic: Covid-19 and Detention
On 1 March 2020, the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the Dominican Republic. Between 15 and 19 March, the government adopted a series of emergency measures, including halting flights from Europe, China, South Korea, and Iran; suspending ferry arrivals; and closing border crossings with Haiti. As of December 2020, the country had registered 149,138 […]
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DETENTION CAPACITY
ALTERNATIVES TO DETENTION
ADDITIONAL ENFORCEMENT DATA
PRISON DATA
POPULATION DATA
LEGAL & REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
Does the Country Have Specific Laws that Provide for Migration-Related Detention?
Detention-Related Legislation
GROUNDS FOR DETENTION
Immigration-Status-Related Grounds
LENGTH OF DETENTION
DETENTION INSTITUTIONS
Apprehending Authorities
PROCEDURAL STANDARDS & SAFEGUARDS
COSTS & OUTSOURCING
COVID-19 DATA
TRANSPARENCY
MONITORING
NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING BODIES
NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISMS (OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE)
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (NGOS)
GOVERNMENTAL MONITORING BODIES
INTERNATIONAL DETENTION MONITORING
INTERNATIONAL TREATIES & TREATY BODIES
International Treaties Ratified
Ratification Year
Observation Date
CAT, Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
2012
2012
CTOCTP, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
2008
2008
CTOCSP, Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
2007
2007
Ratio of relevant international treaties ratified
Ratio: 12/19
Individual Complaints Procedures
Acceptance Year
CEDAW, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 1999
2001
2001
Relevant Recommendations or Observations Issued by Treaty Bodies
Recommendation Year
Observation Date
Committee on the Rights of the Child
39. With reference to joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 (2017) of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families/No. 22 and No. 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017) on the human rights of children in the context of international migration and the Committee’ s general comment No. 6 (2005) on treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, the Committee urges the State party, with immediate effect:
(a) To halt the detention, deportation and arbitrary expulsion of Haitian migrant children, paying particular attention to unaccompanied children, ensuring that public authorities fully comply with the principle of ensuring that the best interests of the child are the primary consideration in all decisions in order to prevent family separation, promote family reunification and cease forced institutionalization and guarantee that children have effective access to refugee status determination procedures and to international protection ;
2023
2023
2023
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
There have been mass deportations of Haitian people, particularly pregnant and postpartum women, some of whom were forcibly separated from their children in the Dominican Republic. The Committee urged the State party to suspend these deportations immediately and issue permanent residence permits to Haitian women whose children were born and raised in the Dominican Republic. In addition, there are significant obstacles faced by women of Haitian origin who are undocumented or in an irregular migratory situation to register the birth of children born to a Dominican father. The Committee called on the Dominican Republic to remove all legislative barriers to ensure all such children have access to Dominican nationality.
2022
2022
2022
Human Rights Committee
24. The State party should, as a matter of urgency, take specific steps to:
[...]
(c) Avoid the arbitrary and indefinite detention of migrants, asylum seekers and refugee claimants, ensure that they have access to a lawyer and information on their rights, including at the border, and provide for alternatives to detention for asylum seekers and refugee claimants, ensuring that detention is used only as a last resort;
[...]
(d) Implement training programmes regarding the Covenant, international standards on asylum and refugee status, and human rights for the staff of migration institutions and border personnel;
[...]
2017
2017
2017
Committee on the Rights of the Child
§ 40. "The Committee reiterates its previous recommendation (CRC/C/DOM/CO/ 2, paras. 49 and 51) and recommends that the State party:
(a) Continue to evaluate the impact of social programmes for families, improve their efficiency and provide them with adequate resources;
(b) Not deport children who are in the care of their family in the State party and ensure that children are not deported to a country where their protection is not guaranteed;
(c) Strengthen its efforts to prevent the separation of children from their parents in the context of migration for economic reasons and ensure that persons who left the country to work abroad are able to meet their parental responsibilities, including by providing them with family counselling;
(d) Design and put in place programmes to support single-headed households, particularly those headed by adolescent girls, and ensure that they have access to early childhood care, health and education...
62. The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Ensure that children are not deported to a country where their rights risk being violated;
(b) Ensure that the National Refugee Commission undertakes child refugee status determination (RSD) through a fair and efficient asylum procedure, in accordance with international standards and in cooperation with UNHCR;
(c) Ensure the speedy and cost-free processing of temporary identity documents for child refugees and asylum-seekers and their relatives, including documentation certifying legal residency for those who were recognized under the UNHCR mandate;
(d) Provide access to education, health, shelter and other services to which child refugees and asylum-seekers are entitled pursuant to the Convention.
64. The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Strengthen efforts to provide unaccompanied migrant children with shelter, care and protection;
(b) Continue its efforts towards the adoption of coordination protocols between the authorities responsible for the protection of children at the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as well as protocols for the voluntary return of migrant children, with guarantees of due process."
2015
2015
2015
Committee on the Rights of the Child
The Committee is concerned that the inefficient functioning of the National Refugee Commission (CONARE) is greatly affecting the rights of asylum-seeking children and their families, the overwhelming majority of whom are of Haitian nationality. The Committee is also concerned that the inadequate access to identity documents for child refugees and asylum seekers and/or their relatives puts them at risk of detention and deportation and impedes their access to health care and education.
The Committee recommends that the State party:
Ensure that the National Refugee Commission undertakes child refugee status determination (RSD) through a fair and efficient asylum procedure, in accordance with international standards and in cooperation with UNHCR;
Ensure the speedy and cost-free processing of temporary identity documents for child refugees and asylum-seekers and their relatives, including documentation certifying legal residency for those who were recognized under the UNHCR mandate.
2015
2015
2015
Human Rights Committee
§20. The Committee remains concerned at the practice of deporting foreigners in conditions that are incompatible with the provisions of the Covenant. The Committee also regrets the detention for unspecified periods of persons who are going to be deported (arts. 9 and 10).
The State party should provide all persons subject to a deportation process with the guarantees established by the Covenant, abolish the detention for an unspecified time period of persons who are going to be deported and provide detained persons with effective remedies.
2012
2012
2012
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
§13. The Committee is concerned at information received according to which migrants of Haitian origin, whether documented or undocumented, are allegedly detained and subject to collective deportations (“repatriations”) to Haiti without any guarantee of due process (arts. 5 (a) and 6).
Taking into account its general recommendation 30 (2004) on non-citizens, the Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Ensure that laws concerning deportation or other forms of removal of non-citizens from the jurisdiction of the State party do not discriminate in purpose or effect among non-citizens on the basis of race, colour or ethnic or national origin;
(b) Ensure that non-citizens are not subject to collective expulsion, in particular in situations where there are insufficient guarantees that the personal circumstances of each of the persons concerned have been taken into account;
(c) Avoid the expulsion of non-citizens, especially of long-term residents, that would result in disproportionate interference with the right to family life;
(d) Ensure that non-citizens have equal access to effective remedies, including the right to challenge expulsion orders, and are allowed to pursue such remedies effectively. The Committee further recommends that the State party take the necessary measures to accelerate the approval of the provision of Migration Law No. 285-04 setting guidelines on the principle of due process in deportation or expulsion procedures.
The Committee invites the State party to adopt humane and internationally accepted measures in dealing with undocumented migrants.
2008
2008
2008
> UN Special Procedures
Relevant Recommendations or Observations by UN Special Procedures
Recommendation Year
Observation Date
Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls
The persistent situation of poverty and inequality in the Dominican Republic exacerbates the discrimination and exclusion that many women and girls experience,” the experts said. Girls and adolescents, migrant women and girls, victims and survivors of trafficking and sexual exploitation, women deprived of liberty, women and girls with disabilities, and LBTQI+ women face greater vulnerability. Because of the high rates of femicide and sexual assault, the Working Group welcomes the establishment of a national system of safe houses, it emphasized that there is a long way to go to address the root causes of violence effectively. Crucial interventions would include the adoption of a comprehensive law recognizing all forms of violence, effective prevention programs, education on gender equality, and ensuring victims and survivors' access to existing services and justice.
2024
2024
2024
Working Group on arbitrary detention
“We are particularly alarmed by reports of arrests, detention and deportation of Haitian migrant women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth in the Dominican Republic.”
"It is vital to establish firewalls between migration control and public services, so that all migrants, regardless of their status, can access essential services without fear of detection, detention or deportation.”
“The Dominican Republic must end the intimidation, detention and deportation of pregnant migrant women seeking medical care.”
2023
2023
Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
“We are particularly alarmed by reports of arrests, detention and deportation of Haitian migrant women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth in the Dominican Republic.”
"It is vital to establish firewalls between migration control and public services, so that all migrants, regardless of their status, can access essential services without fear of detection, detention or deportation.”
“The Dominican Republic must end the intimidation, detention and deportation of pregnant migrant women seeking medical care.”
2023
2023
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
“We are particularly alarmed by reports of arrests, detention and deportation of Haitian migrant women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth in the Dominican Republic.”
"It is vital to establish firewalls between migration control and public services, so that all migrants, regardless of their status, can access essential services without fear of detection, detention or deportation.”
“The Dominican Republic must end the intimidation, detention and deportation of pregnant migrant women seeking medical care.”
2023
2023
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
“We are particularly alarmed by reports of arrests, detention and deportation of Haitian migrant women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth in the Dominican Republic.”
"It is vital to establish firewalls between migration control and public services, so that all migrants, regardless of their status, can access essential services without fear of detection, detention or deportation.”
“The Dominican Republic must end the intimidation, detention and deportation of pregnant migrant women seeking medical care.”
2023
2023
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
“We are particularly alarmed by reports of arrests, detention and deportation of Haitian migrant women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth in the Dominican Republic.”
"It is vital to establish firewalls between migration control and public services, so that all migrants, regardless of their status, can access essential services without fear of detection, detention or deportation.”
“The Dominican Republic must end the intimidation, detention and deportation of pregnant migrant women seeking medical care.”
2023
2023
Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
“We are particularly alarmed by reports of arrests, detention and deportation of Haitian migrant women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth in the Dominican Republic.”
"It is vital to establish firewalls between migration control and public services, so that all migrants, regardless of their status, can access essential services without fear of detection, detention or deportation.”
“The Dominican Republic must end the intimidation, detention and deportation of pregnant migrant women seeking medical care.”
2023
2023
> UN Universal Periodic Review
Relevant Recommendations or Observations from the UN Universal Periodic Review
Observation Date
Yes
50. Australia expressed concern at the prevalence of gender-based violence, State-based
racial profiling, arbitrary detention, mass deportation of migrants and the State’s treatment
of stateless people.
II. Conclusions and/or recommendations:
118.238 Prevent forced deportations of migrants and their descendants (Argentina);
118.240 Ensure due diligence and fair process in migrant returns, reinstate the procedure for the regulation of all temporary migrant workers, and adopt a labour mobility mechanism (Canada);
118.241 Review cases of alleged detentions and deportations, especially of pregnant and nursing Haitian women (Colombia);
118.243 Guarantee the human and procedural rights of migrants, including Haitians, during the process of deportation or repatriation (Germany);
2024
4th
2024
REGIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS
Regional Legal Instruments
Year of Ratification (Treaty) / Transposed (Directive) / Adoption (Regulation)
Observation Date
HEALTH CARE PROVISION
HEALTH IMPACTS
COVID-19
Country Updates
In the past three months, Dominican Republic authorities have significantly stepped up migration controls and forced removals of Haitians, including amongst them pregnant women arrested in hospitals, prompting international condemnation. The country, which has historically pursued a policy of mass deportations, removed more than 60,204 people to Haiti between 1 August and the end of October alone–and some 20,000 in a nine day period in November.
Large numbers of Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, with many of them working within the country’s agricultural sector. While the country’s economy relies on this labour, authorities have long touted xenophobic narratives about the “Haitianisation” of the Dominican Republic. More recently, tensions have grown following the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and the deepening crisis in Haiti, with Dominican authorities claiming that intensified border controls and deportations are critical to national security.
In recent months, authorities have stepped up migration controls and deportations, arresting Haitains–as well as those who look like Haitains. According to the US embassy in the country, those arrested are detained in “overcrowded detention centers, without the ability to challenge their detention and without access to food or toilets, sometimes for days, before being released or deported to Haiti.”
In a particularly concerning development, civil society organisations report that authorities have also started conducting migration controls in hospitals, detaining pregnant women in need of medical care in order to deport them. This was quickly condemned by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which highlighted that it violates the principle of non-refoulement; the right of women to health, particularly reproductive health, and disregards “their need for humanitarian protection from the context of institutional crisis, structural violence, and human rights violations that prevails in Haiti.”
Thousands of children have also been deported, and according to various reports and testimonies, deportations are often so chaotic that children are separated from their parents during the process. This year alone, 1,800 unaccompanied children have been deported to Haiti, however it is unclear whether these children had been on their own in the Dominican Republic, whether they had been separated from family when they were arrested, or whether they were separated from parents during the detention and deportation procedure.
The country’s latest treatment of non-nationals has prompted widespread criticism. In late November, a coalition of Dominican NGOs—including Proyecto Trato Digno, OBMICA, and CEDESO—released a statement harshly criticising the deportation campaign: “In recent months, the Dominican government has implemented an aggressive regime to persecute migrants, including hundreds of operations that violate deportation due process. This regime is characterized by a disproportionate use of force, mobilizing security and public order agencies that are not intended to treat administrative matters: the armed forces, national intelligence, and the national police. … We call on authorities to mend their immigration policy to comply with national norms that define due process in matters of detentions and deportations, respect for the rights and dignity of people, as stipulated in the Dominican Constitution.”
Haiti has also condemned the country for subjecting Haitians to “inhumane, cruel and degrading conditions,” while William Charpantier, the coordinator of MENAMIRD, a national roundtable for migrants and refugees in the country, stated that “these aren’t deportations. It’s persecution based on race.” The authorities’ actions were also deplored by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, who called “on the Dominican Republic authorities to step up efforts to prevent xenophobia, discrimination and related forms of intolerance based on national, racial or ethnic origin, or immigration status” and called for an end to the deportations.
Despite criticism, the situation non-nationals face in the Dominican Republic looks set to worsen. According to President Abinader, “The Dominican Republic will not only continue, but will increase deportations; therefore, these statements made by Volker Türk on behalf of the United Nations are unacceptable and irresponsible. We will continue the deportations and increase them.” To enable the growing rate of deportations, authorities approved Decree 668-22 on 11 November 2022, paving the way for the government to create a specialised police unit to prosecute and deport migrants living in state or private properties.
There has been a sharp uptick in anti-migrant policies and practices in the Dominican Republic in recent months, which have been fuelled in part by COVID-related restrictions and growing public backlash aimed at Haitians.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic have a long history of political and racial tensions, often related to migration pressures. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), for example, noted during a review of the Dominican Republic the UN’s longstanding “concern about the racial discrimination, xenophobia and other related forms of intolerance that particularly affect dark-skinned persons of African descent from the Dominican Republic or Haiti as well as the Haitian irregular migrant population.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing humanitarian and social strife in Haiti have severely exacerbated these tensions in the Dominican Republic. Thus, while countries across the Caribbean and Latin America moved to stop deportations after the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, the Dominican Republic did not. During the first half of March 2020, 2,059 Haitian nationals were detained and 1,703 deported. Recently, these deportations have appeared to increase. In October 2021, authorities deported 4,025 Haitians following raids led by police in Santa Cruz de Mao.
In one notable recent case, on 11 November 2021, El Nacional reported that several pregnant Haitian women had been detained in hospitals across the capital and subsequently deported. A group of 45 women, including 28 who were pregnant, were deported on 11 November to Haiti through the border between Comendador in the Dominican Republic and Belladere in Haiti. The Mesa Nacional para Migraciones y Refugiados en República Dominicana, a network of local civil society organisations, denounced the move as “a practice of racial discrimination, xenophobia” and intolerance. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Felipe Gonzalez, also denounced the move, tweeting: “Muy preocupante información sobre migrantes haitianas embarazadas detenidas en hospitales de República Dominicana y luego deportadas. Los Estados deben garantizar acceso a la salud y derechos sexuales y reproductivos de todas las personas migrantes.”
The hospital deportations occurred just as reports were emerging that the Dominican Republic was planning to limit access to public hospitals for undocumented migrants and would review the visa status of students from Haiti. The country’s Interior Minister justified the proposals arguing that the situation in Haiti “puts additional pressure on our health budget.”
In February 2021, the president of the Dominican Republic announced plans to build a fence along its 380 kilometer border with Haiti to “put an end to the serious problems of illegal immigration, drug trafficking and movement of stolen vehicles.” By May 2021, 23 kilometers of the four meter-high wall had been constructed. The COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of the border with Haiti also had severe economic consequences for the country and local communities (see 8 December 2020 Dominican Republic update on this platform).
According to data published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there were 162 refugees and 625 asylum seekers in the country in 2020 and 162 refugees and 642 asylum seekers registered by mid-2021. UNHCR data also suggests that there has been a large increase in the number of Venezuelans present in the country. In 2019, there were 33,816 Venezuelans displaced abroad living in the Dominican Republic and in 2020, there were 114,050. In July 2021, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported that the first group of 100,000 Venezuelan migrants without legal status in the country were given visas, allowing them to work, open bank accounts and join the social security system under the country’s Migration Normalisation Plan. The plan was created by the Dominican government with support of the IOM and aims to regularise the Venezuelan population. The first phase of the plan began in April 2021 and since then, 43,000 Venezuelan nationals have registered to extend their stay and on 1 July 2021, 21 Venezuelan nationals received their work visa.
While the Dominican Republic has begun a national vaccination campaign against COVID-19, the country’s president, Luis Abindaer said that vaccine shots would not be given to anyone without residency papers. In addition, Response for Venezuelans reported in February 2021 that the country’s vaccination plan is not including refugees and migrants at this stage.
On 1 March 2020, the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the Dominican Republic. Between 15 and 19 March, the government adopted a series of emergency measures, including halting flights from Europe, China, South Korea, and Iran; suspending ferry arrivals; and closing border crossings with Haiti. As of December 2020, the country had registered 149,138 COVID-19 cases and 2,346 deaths.
On 10 November, the IOM reported that it was distributing more than 12,000 food kits to migrant and Dominican families affected by the economic consequences of closing the border with Haiti. The closure of four border crossings in particular have had major impacts on local communities and the country as a whole. The Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Development reports that some 90 percent of trade with Haiti flows through those posts, which account for nearly 230,000 entries per year.
The IOM reports that it is working with several civil society organisations in the country to distribute food in border provinces. According to the Casa de Luz Foundation, “people do not have access to food in sufficient quantities, and thanks to the aid that IOM has been providing these days, many people have received food at home. … Many of these families depended on the informal market trade. Now the market activities are almost nil, so many have had to migrate to work for private households in Santo Domingo.”
According to UNHCR, there are 30,333 Venezuelans displaced abroad in the Dominican Republic along with 603 asylum seekers and 162 refugees. According to Response for Venezuelans, its partners assisted 37 Venezuelans with COVID-19, accompanying them to hospitals and purchasing their medicines. Response for Venezuelans also reported that 33 cases of legal assistance for persons who were evicted and lost their jobs without justification were managed remotely by the organisation.
In its concluding observations in 2017, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern regarding reports of arbitrary and indefinite detention of asylum seekers and refugees as well as at the lack of procedural safeguards in the country. In addition, the committee observed that a high number of Haitian nationals are deported and that pushbacks at the border are carried out in the absence of procedural safeguards and by inadequately trained immigration and border personnel. The committee recommended that the country take steps to “avoid the arbitrary and indefinite detention of migrants, asylum seekers and refugee claimants, ensure that they have access to a lawyer and information on their rights, including at the border, and provide for alternatives to detention for asylum seekers and refugee claimants, ensuring that detention is used only a last resort.”
The country’s prisons have seen large outbreaks of COVID-19 since April; as of 1 July 2020, there were 917 cases in the country’s prisons, of which 346 were active at that time. During the pandemic, two riots took place, one in April at the Victoria prison in Santo Domingo and another in May at the Romana prison, leaving five prisoners and a police officer injured. Prisoners were requesting COVID-19 testing after other prisoners tested positive at the facilities and after four prisoners died at the Victoria prison. The Victoria prison has 9,000 prisoners for 1,500 places.
The GDP has been unable to obtain details on COVID-19 related measures taken to safeguard people in immigration custody.
Government Agencies
- Dirección General de Migración
- extranjeria@migracion.gob.do
- +1 829-820-5782
International Organisations
- IOM Dominican Republic
- UNHCR Dominican Republic
NGOs, NHRIs, and Research Institutions
- Observatorio Migrantes del Caribe
- MENAMIRD
- Ombudsman
Media
- Listin Diario
- Diario Libre
