Haitians booted from Dominican Republic uncertain of future
Source: Associated Press
Haitians booted from Dominican Republic uncertain of future
By EVENS SANON and DANICA COTO, Associated Press | June 18, 2015 | Updated: June 20, 2015 12:40am
FONBAYA, Haiti (AP) — Saint-Soi Souverin sat on a bench resting and thinking about his plight after being uprooted from his longtime home on the other side of the border in the Dominican Republic, far from the Haitian shelter where he is staying.
Dominican authorities deported the 35-year-old farm worker along with his wife and four children early this week, leaving Souverin to ponder what he will do in Haiti — a deeply poor country that he left at age 17 to find work in the relatively more prosperous Dominican Republic.
"I'm not taking this well," he told The Associated Press in Spanish as his small daughter fell asleep on the shelter's concrete floor Thursday. "They sent me here with two empty hands. Everything I own was left behind."
. . .
Human rights activists worry that tens of thousands of people will face Souverin's plight in the coming weeks and months now that the Dominican government is pledging to deport non-citizens who did not submit applications to establish legal residency before Wednesday night's deadline. Most of those affected are from neighboring Haiti or of Haitian descent.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Haitians-booted-from-Dominican-Republic-uncertain-6336779.php
(Racists riding the D.R. side of the island of darker-skinned citizens.)
