Bridgetown, Barbados .- Haiti president Michel Martelly on Friday asked his counterparts of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to find a peaceful solution to the crisis he affirms Dominicans of Haitian descent face as deportees from the Dominican Republic, EFE reports.
Caricom countries have criticized Dominican Republic’s policy on repatriations, while both the United Nations and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations have stated a willingness to intercede.
“Haiti prefers to stay on the negotiating table with Dominican Republic to resolve the crisis peacefully,” Martelly said during his speech at the Caricom summit held in Barbados, after noting that many people have reached the border to leave the Spanish-speaking country in recent days.
In just a few days, he said, “we had over 20,000 people returning, including a person who claims to be from Nigeria. ”
“But one thing I know is that two nights ago 21 people were forced to return to Haiti. They didn’t come voluntarily, they were arrested and returned to Haiti. It seems that they are not all Haitians.”
Martelly called the situation faced by his country a “humanitarian crisis, because “we aren’t talking about Haitians, it’s probably Dominicans taken out of their country.”
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