Spanish
United Nations,.- United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned this Tuesday that Dominican authorities have deported 900 Haitian women who are pregnant or breastfeeding in the last month.
According to what was pointed out in his daily press conference by the spokesman for Guterres, Stéphane Dujarric, in just one month an average of thirty pregnant or breastfeeding women have been attended to at the same border, at the time of their expulsion, by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which constitutes "a violation of international norms."
You may be interested in: HANSEL GARCIA on Haitian woman in labor
Dujarric highlighted that the UN is "deeply concerned" about these expulsions and stressed that, in total, almost 20,000 Haitians have been deported from the Dominican Republic to their country in the last month, a record number.
The spokesperson cited the UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, Ulrike Richardson, who has warned that the deportation of Haitians poses "serious humanitarian and human rights problems," as the country suffers a complex humanitarian crisis marked by armed violence.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic share a border of almost 400 kilometers, and hundreds of thousands of Haitians reside in the latter country, most of them in an irregular migratory status.
The Dominican Government ordered a massive deportation program in October and has strengthened border controls with a fence it is building on the border, the use of advanced technology equipment, and the deployment of thousands of troops.
Likewise, it has tightened measures internally with decisions such as deporting undocumented Haitians who go to hospitals and other public health centers immediately after treating them.
In the first three months of the year, 1,617 people died and another 580 were injured due to violence involving armed gangs, self-defense groups, and unorganized members of the population, as well as operations by security forces, according to the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (Binuh).
In addition, according to the UN, some 5.7 million people are facing acute food insecurity in Haiti.
