Dominican Republic arrests pregnant women and children in crackdown

The Dominican Republic announces the arrest of  more than 130 Haitian women and children on the start of of undocumented migrant crackdown in Santo Domingo’s hospitals. Many of the women arrested on Monday were pregnant and some to had already given birth.

The crackdown is part of the  plans of the government which was announced last year to deport up to 10,000 undocumented migrants a week to reduce migrants from Haiti.

Due to that, President Luis Abinader’s government, has faced criticism for its poor handling of Haitian migrants as escaping gang-related violence and poverty in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The immigration department said that the women were “treated with dignity” after being detained where their biometric data and fingerprints were recorded. A Haitian woman who supported her pregnant friend to the hospital said that the government’s will lead to uncertainty for pregnant women in need of care.

She said that “If a woman gave birth today, they can’t take her today, because they don’t know what will happen. And if she has a C-section, they don’t know what is going to happen either, because there is never a doctor with her to assist if something happens on the road, with the baby or with her.”

Authorities said medical attention will be provided to the woman and any undocumented mothers will be deported. A lot of the Haitians always cross into the neighboring country with the Dominican Republic running from violence and poverty, sometimes in several truckloads per day.

To reduce those numbers, the Dominican Republic has deported  over 80,000 people to Haiti in the first three months of this year, as per the AFP news agency. President Abinader’s government raised concerns  at the international community’s inability to stabilize Haiti.

SOURCE: BBC

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