Saturday, July 25, 2015

Dominican families face forced expulsion: Please help

Help families forced out of their homes stay in the Dominican Republic
 

Dear Tracy,

Knock knock...

Imagine answering your home's door. Then, being unlawfully forced out of the only country you've ever known.

Many Dominicans are facing that fear today. Tens of thousands of people in the Dominican Republic have been stripped of their citizenship and could be forcibly sent across the border to Haiti.

I'm just back from the Dominican Republic with Amnesty, where we have been working to prevent this humanitarian disaster. Will you help by making a gift of support?

Two years ago, the Dominican Republic's highest court stripped the nationality of people of foreign ancestry born in the country from 1929 to 2007. The vast majority of these citizens are of Haitian descent.

These people were born and raised in the Dominican Republic. Few speak the Haitian Creole of their ancestors. They have few, if any, connections to Haiti. Yet, they could be forced to move there.

My team is working to prevent these forced expulsions from happening. We have been calling on President Medina to guarantee that Dominicans of Haitian descent will not be expelled, and to restore nationality to these individuals.

Thanks in part to our campaign and your activism, some are in the process of having their nationality restored. Thousands more have no documents to prove their nationality and are living in abject poverty, without access to their rights. These individuals are extremely vulnerable to expulsion from the only land they know as home.

The discrimination against Dominicans of Haitian descent must stop. Please help end this crisis.

In solidarity,

Marselha Gonçalves Margerin
Advocacy Director for the Americas
Amnesty International USA

P.S. Meet some of the families at risk of expulsion to Haiti here.

No comments: