Torn at the seam: migration, deportations, and humanitarian concerns on the island of Hispaniola

Abstract

In 2013, the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Tribunal rendered Sentence 168-13, which infamously made many Dominicans of Haitian descent effectively stateless. This Sentence also called for a national regularization plan. These actions were the culmination of decades of problems related to migration flows between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

In June 2015, the International Law and Organizations Program’s International Human Rights Clinic at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) analyzed the legislation that followed Sentence 168-13 through a report entitled Justice Derailed. For the 2015-2016 academic year, the SAIS International Human Rights Clinic decided to create a follow-up report, broadening the research focus to fully understand the outstanding nationality and migration issues in a post-June 2015 Hispaniola. While the report’s primary focus is the aftermath of the Naturalization Law and Regularization Plan, as well as the resumption of deportations from the Dominican Republic, it also analyzes the historical and current factors impacting migratory flows.