[comgarr] Threat of deportation to more than 100 Haitian victims of the Jimani Floods

[info at garr-haiti.org]

Threat of deportation to more than 100 Haitian victims of the Jimani Floods

P-au-P, July 23, 2004- Threats of deportation hang over 43 Haitian
families who are victims of the recent floods, which took place on the 24
of May 2004 in the border town of Jimani. The information was communicated
to GARR (Support Group for Refugees and the Repatriated) by very reliable
Dominican sources.

These families comprise of a total number of 130 persons, must of whom
have lived for many years in the Las Cuarenta area of Jimani. The floods
were responsible for the disappearance of a several members of their
families, destroyed their homes as well as depleting their merger
resources. Amongst the persons threatened with deportation, are under aged
children, some of who were born in Jimani and whose parents had been swept
away by the devastating floods.
For the past 2 months, the Pastorale Haitienne de Barahona  and the
Movement des Femmes Dominico-Haitiennes (MUDHA) have been accompanying
these families who are sleeping in tents to a refuge that has been set up
close of the Jimani boarder.

The threats of deportation on these 43 families is becoming clear with the
news of the Dominican Government’s imminent declaration of a state of
emergency in Jimani since this tragic event which had cost the lives of
several hundreds of Dominicans and Haitians. According to reliable
sources, the deportation is set to take place around the 14 of August
2004, or 48 hours before the oath taking ceremony of the elected Dominican
president, Léonel Fernandez.

The GARR is profoundly disturbed by this situation, which threatens to
worsen the already terrible situation of these Haitian families who have
been traumatised by the events they lived through on the nights of the 23
and 24 May 2004.

Le GARR calls on the Haitian government to come to the discussion table
with the Dominican government to find a resolution to this situation that
would upholds the rights of those involved.  In the same vein, we call on
Haitian leaders to take the necessary steps in the shortest possible time
to re-house the inhabitants of Fonds-Verrettes who have been waiting
impatiently for almost two months for a new place to live. [23-07-04]