WOMEN’S COMMISSION for refugeew women & children Refugee Policy Adrift: The United States and Dominican Republic Deny Haitians Protection January 2003 WOMEN’S COMMISSION for refugee women & children Women’sw Commission for Refugee Women and Children 122 East 42nd Street New York, NY 10168-1289 tel. 212.551.3111 or 3088 fax. 212.551.3180 [email protected] www.womenscommission.org © January 2003 by Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 1-58030-024-3 M ission Statement The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children works to improve the lives and defend the rights of refugee and internally displaced women, children, and adolescents. We advocate for their inclusion and participation in programs of humanitarian assistance and protection. We provide technical expertise and policy advice to donors and organizations that work with refugees and the displaced. We make recommendations to policy makers based on rigorous research and information gathered on fact-finding missions. We join with refugee women, children, and ado- lescents to ensure that their voices are heard from the community level to the highest levels of governments and inter- national organizations. We do this in the conviction that their empowerment is the surest route to the greater well- being of all forcibly displaced people. Acknowledgments This report is the product of a collaborative effort with the National Coalition for Haitian Rights and the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. The Women’s Commission would like to thank the The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The J.M. Kaplan Fund and the Open Society Institute. The Women’s Commission would also like to express its appreciation to the Jesuit Refugee Service for its assistance in coordinating the mission. It also wishes to offer special thanks to the women and children asylum seekers, as well as the service providers who assist them, who shared their experiences with the delegation. The Women’s Commission delegation included Merrie Archer, senior policy associate, National Coalition for Haitian Rights; Mary Diaz, executive director, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children; Kathie Klarreich, freelance journalist and chair, Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade; Cheryl Little, executive director, Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center; and Wendy Young, director of government relations and U.S. programs, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. Wendy Young wrote this report in collaboration with members of the delegation. Mary Diaz and Diana Quick, direc- tor of communications, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, edited the report. Cover photograph © Miami Herald Refugee Policy Adrift: The United States and Dominican Republic Deny Haitians Protection January 2003 CONTENTS I. Executive Summary 1 II. Scope of the Women’s Commission Assessment 4 III. Background 5 IV. The United States Continues to Deny Protection to Haitians 18 V. Haitian Children Not Exempt From Harsh Treatment 33 VI. Treatment of Haitian Asylum Seekers in the Dominican Republic 35 VII. Conclusions and Recommendations 43 Appendix 48 Synopsis of Applicable International Standards Notes 50 HAITI AND THE CARIBBEAN REGION source: www.haiti.com . EXECUTIVE SUMMARY I degree of violence and repression and perhaps even a Haitians are witnessing the collapse of their coun- collapse of the government. try’s nascent democracy as political violence and human rights abuses escalate. As a result, the United States and Caribbean countries may soon face anoth- THE RESPONSE OF THE er Haitian refugee crisis. As has been the case during UNITED STATES past crises, however, there is no meaningful refugee protection for Haitians in the region. To date, the number of Haitians fleeing their home- land as a result of these political problems is not Thus far, the response of receiving countries— dramatic compared to past crises, but the United including the United States and the Dominican States has already taken steps to deter Haitians from Republic—has been to adopt measures designed to leaving or to quickly return those who are able to prevent Haitian asylum seekers from accessing asy- make it to the United States. Such steps include: lum procedures. In the United States, the White House is clearly the driving force behind a discrimi- • Interdiction of Haitian boats both on the high natory policy aimed specifically at Haitian asylum seas and within the territorial waters of the seekers. Several executive agencies—including the United States; Department of State, the Immigration and • Summary return of those individuals who are Naturalization Service (INS), the Executive Office interdicted with no screening of their asylum for Immigration Review, and the Coast Guard— claims unless a person explicitly expresses a fear have been instructed to implement measures that of return, a procedure that offers significantly less undermine the ability of Haitian asylum seekers to protection than those used to identify interdicted obtain refugee protection. The Dominican govern- Cubans and Chinese in need of protection; ment, in turn, has neglected its obligation to identify Haitian refugees and ensure they are provided full • Resettlement to third countries such as protection and adequate assistance. Guatemala, Nicaragua, Australia, and Canada of the few interdicted individuals who are provided In addition, the UN High Commissioner for with offshore refugee status determinations; Refugees (UNHCR), the primary international agency with refugee protection as its mandate, must • Prolonged detention of sea arrivals who are able adopt a more vigorous and proactive approach than to make it to the United States; it is currently devoting to the region. • Application of expedited procedures and fast- Political unrest in Haiti is rapidly increasing as the tracked asylum adjudications that result in many Haitian people grow increasingly unhappy with the Haitians having to present their asylum claims failure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his without benefit of legal counsel; and Lavalas Party to deliver the economic stability and • Forcible return of rejected asylum seekers. respect for human rights that were promised when Women and children are not exempt from these their democratically elected government was restored to power eight years ago. The government has restrictionist policies. The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children interviewed Haitian responded to this unrest with measures that violate women who first spent months in U.S. detention basic human rights, including illegal arrests, arbi- trary detention, disappearances, extrajudicial before they eventually were denied asylum and repa- triated to Haiti. The women reported suffering fur- killings, crackdowns on the political opposition, and ther human rights abuses upon return, including constraints on free speech and assembly. It has also encouraged mob vigilantism that often involves rape imprisonment in harsh conditions and beatings by forces aligned with the Lavalas Party. Some women and other forms of gender violence, as well as physi- have been forced to go into hiding subsequent to cal violence against and intimidation of children. As the instability grows, some experts are beginning to their return and report that they will attempt to flee Haiti again at the earliest possible opportunity. predict that Haiti will experience an even greater Refugee Policy Adrift: The United States and Dominican Republic Deny Haitians Protection These incidents underscore the failure of the United admitting them into the United States. Most Haitians States to provide Haitian asylum seekers, including whom the Coast Guard interdicts on the high seas or women and children, with a meaningful opportunity in U.S. territorial waters are forcibly returned to to present their asylum claims. Since December Haiti with no screening of their asylum claims. 2001, the U.S. government has systematically singled However, if a Haitian who is interdicted affirmative- out Haitians for prolonged detention and fast- ly expresses a fear of return, his or her claim is ini- tracked adjudication of their claims to asylum. tially screened on board the Coast Guard vessel. If Haitian men have been detained at a large immigra- the INS determines that the asylum seeker has a credible fear of return to Haiti, the individual is tion detention center near Miami, the Krome Service Processing Center. Meanwhile, more than 20 Haitian transferred to the U.S. military base on Guantanamo women were incarcerated in a maximum security Bay, Cuba. If the asylum seeker is then found to Miami-Dade County prison for eight months. Only have a well-founded fear of persecution during a sec- recently, after sustained public criticism, did the INS ond interview with an INS asylum officer, the United transfer the women to a more appropriate facility, States will arrange resettlement to Central America, the Broward County Work Release Center in Canada, or Australia in order to avoid bringing the Pompano Beach, Florida. Even then, however, it has refugee to the United States. failed to release Haitian women from detention Such measures are by no means unique. Over the unless they are pregnant, despite regularly paroling years, tens of thousands of Haitians have been dis- asylum seekers of other nationalities. placed inside Haiti or forced to seek protection in Haitian children who arrived in the United States other countries because of political and economic alone have also been detained for months. Many instability. The United States has frequently respond- have been held in a local Miami hotel or the ed to the threat of a mass influx of Haitian asylum Boystown children’s shelter. Others were moved to seekers by closing its doors and denying them the the Berks County children’s detention center in right to seek asylum. Pennsylvania, hundreds of miles away from their What is new, however, is the rationale provided by legal representatives in Miami. the Bush Administration to justify these restrictionist The INS has forcibly separated Haitian families into measures. The U.S.