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PHILIPSBURG--Independence for St. Martin Foundation (ISMF) has called for a boycott of travel to and importation of goods from the Dominican Republic, as it condemned the plight of loss of rights to citizenship and the stripping of citizenship going back some five generations from Haitians, and people of Haitian descent living in that country.

   Governments on the Dutch and French sides of the island are urged by the foundation, headed by rights activist José Lake Jr, “to condemn the atrocities that are being perpetrated in the Dominican Republic.”

In its press statement issued on Thursday, the foundation said it has aligned itself with the growing international call for a boycott of the Dominican Republic for travel and the importation of products made in that country.

The foundation urged the Caribbean Community CARICOM, the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations (UN) and other national and international bodies “to impose sanctions against the Dominican Republic until it reverses its ill-conceived policy of mass deportations of undocumented Haitian immigrants and of Dominicans of Haitian origin.”

The decision to approve the condemnation of the denationalization and forced deportation of tens of thousands of Dominicanos of Haitian descent was made in the foundation’s meeting of June 30.  

The foundation has been following “with great regret and outrage” the “unfolding human tragedy” in the Dominican Republic” brought about by “a misguided decision” of that country’s highest judicial entity, its Constitutional Court, in 2013.

“Contrary to what the government of the Dominican Republic is claiming, this whole issue has been one of human rights from the very start, and not of the sovereign rights of the country to regulate immigration,” said the foundation.

Unfortunately, the key legal points of the court decision “have disappeared in the current debate.” One of those points of the decision being retroactive to 1930 that gives “a perverse interpretation of the term ‘in-transit’ to mean anyone, who has been residing in the country without the necessary documents since 1929, and its defiant ignoring of the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on a similar case,” said the foundation.

It is clear that the attempt to denationalize and render stateless Dominicanos of Haitian descent “constitutes a blatant violation of their human rights, which cannot be hidden behind the policy of regularization of undocumented immigrants, a euphemism for undocumented Haitians in the Dominican Republic, nor behind some xenophobic and racist concept of sovereignty,” the foundation said.

Meanwhile, a public panel discussion on today, Friday, will attempt to explain the ongoing immigration situation in the Dominican Republic. The discussion in Philipsburg Jubilee Library starting at 8:00pm is organised by Punto Latino International, a radio programme on PJD3 radio produced and hosted by Reynaldo Urena. One of the named panellists is veteran Spanish-language journalist Maximo Castro.

Urena, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, told The Daily Herald on Tuesday the three-hour panel discussion is “to explain” and “to clarify the situation. People are thinking negatively about the Dominican Republic, but the government has to follow the Constitution and law.”

He said after veteran Caribbean politician Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said the situation in the Dominican Republic has the potential to become a serious humanitarian disaster in the Caribbean, “Everything on the island went crazy.”

Dr. Gonsalves, who is prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was speaking at an Emancipation Day Lecture, themed “Reparations,” hosted by Independence for St. Martin Foundation at University of St. Martin on June 27.

Dr. Gonsalves said the action of the Dominican Republic Government has “brought shame to the region,” because government’s actions appear to be discrimination purely based on “ethnicity.”

The Caribbean as a whole and countries individually “need to speak out” about the human rights violation against Haitians and people of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic.

The visiting prime minister’s call amplified that of independent Member of Parliament (MP) Leona Marlin Romeo, made on June 18, to Parliament to take a stance on the issue.

St. Maarten is home to a large number of people from both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Within those communities, there are high numbers of naturalized Dutch citizens and born-Dutch citizens (nationality acquired from parents).