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Dominican President: Haiti deportations won’t stop

Luis Abinader refuses to “authorise any refugee camps” as crisis unfolds in neighbouring Haiti

The President of the Dominican Republic Luis Abinader has told HARDtalk that he will not stop deporting Haitians, despite the dire conditions across the border on the island of Hispaniola.
Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is among those who have asked the Dominican government to halt deportations of Haitians. Rejecting this, President Abinader responded that “the UN is the one who has to act more”.
President Abinader, who is running for re-election in May, said he had been warning the UN for “more than three years” that Haiti was descending into “chaos”. He insisted that “they cannot ask the Dominican Republic to solve the Haitian problem. We will not do it and we cannot do it”.
Speaking to Stephen Sackur, President Abinader also refused to “authorise any refugee camps at this moment” on Dominican soil. He cited “security and also historical reasons”, suggesting that Haitian islands could be utilised for this purpose. The UN has estimated that over 350,000 Haitians have been internally displaced.

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