The Dominican Republic is carrying out “a discriminatory campaign” against Haitians based on their nationality and the color of their skin, Haiti’s acting representative to the Organization of American States charged Tuesday.

That campaign, which the Dominican government said focuses on expelling up to 10,000 Haitians a week, risks further aggravating the humanitarian crisis in Haiti and fueling instability in the region, Ambassador Gandy Thomas warned.

“These discriminatory policies create enormous pressure on Haiti right when we are facing economic stability, general security issues and political challenges,” Thomas said, describing the move as “a strategy of ethnic cleansing.” “Massive deportation will worsen the fragility of our infrastructure while the deportees will arrive with no support, no resource and no ties to the community.”

Haiti’s condemnation of the Dominican Republic and criticism of the way in which the country, which shares the island of Hispaniola, is carrying out the forced deportations of Haitians in its territory came as the Dominican Republic announced it had repatriated or deported nearly 11,000 Haitians in a week.

As a result of its new strategy, Haiti Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy had requested an emergency meeting at the OAS. She condemned the deportations, saying the brutal scenes of Haitians being rounded up is “dehumanizing” and “an affront to human dignity.”

“Haiti will not stand by as Dominican authorities launch a brutal and discriminatory operation against our people because of the color of their skin,” Dupuy told the Miami Herald shortly before the start of the meeting. “We will never accept these violations of our dignity, and the world cannot allow this manhunt to continue. With unwavering resolve, we will mobilize every national and international avenue and denounce these blatant human rights abuses.”

The special session, later condemned by the Dominican Republic’s representative as not being the forum to address an issue between the two countries, is part of an effort by Haiti Prime Minister Garry Conille to draw attention to the mass deportations and garner support from Haiti’s partners and the international community. In the last 24 hours, he has had Dupuy reach out to various international organizations, including the U.N. High Commission on Refugees, and oversee meetings in Port-au-Prince to respond to the surge in arrivals at the border.

OAS representatives from Canada, the U.S. and Colombia called on the Dominican Republic to respect Haitians’ human rights. The country has a sovereign right to manage migration and enforce its laws, they said, but migrants’ human rights must be respected during deportations.

“We remain concerned about the treatment of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic, particularly in light of the reported desire to surge deportations and the longstanding issues of discrimination and statelessness that many Haitian nationals and Dominicans of Haitian descent face,” Frank Mora, the U.S ambassador to the OAS, said. “We have called consistently for migration nationality laws to be implemented in a manner that fully respects human rights and ensures due process in accordance with both national and international legal obligations.”

Acknowledging the long-standing tensions between the two neighbors over the border and shared water resources, Mora said the U.S. believes that migration management should be part of the subjects broached in a dialogue between the two governments.

This is not the first time the Dominican Republic has ramped up deportations of Haitians. But it comes amid souring tensions between the two and as Haiti continues to see an escalation in gang violence that has displaced more than 700,000 people and fueled hunger among 5.4 million.

It also comes as countries of the region find themselves increasingly trying to tackle the migration question. The entire region is facing a migration crisis, Panama’s representative, Ana Irene Delgado, said.

“We know that organized violence and gangs and the lack of basic needs has meant that much of the international organizations, including our own, should do more to try to mitigate the impact of this migration,” she told the room.

Delgado said the OAS should do more to support countries like hers and the Dominican Republic that are being inundated with fleeing migrants, “as well as those that are seeing massive, massive exodus of their of their citizens.”

“Our entire region,” she said, “depends greatly on our finding a means to uphold the dignity and the security of humankind, and particularly these migrants; we must do better, and that crisis needs to be recognized in a wholehearted way and in respect for human rights, international cooperation and lasting solution for irregular migration In our region.”

Radhafil Rodriguez Torres, who is the Dominican Republic’s alternative representative at the OAS, said his government “categorically rejects the accusations of mistreatment” of Haitians.

“We take such accusations very, very seriously, and you may be sure that we will be investigating those who are being tasked with treating these people illegally, and they will be punished with the whole extent of the law as the facts make that available,” he said.

But Haitian representatives of two organizations, one based in Haiti and the other in the Dominican Republic, said Haitians were being hunted down and no categories were being spared: School children and pregnant women are part of the roundups. In some cases, the individuals being driven across the border to Haiti, weren’t even Haitian but Black Dominicans. They each stressed the need for dialogue, warning that the crisis could make Haitians even more of a target.

In a letter to the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights, Dupuy, the Haitian foreign minister, said the expulsions lack transparency, due process, legal oversight and are in violation of international human rights norms, including the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, to which the Dominican Republic is a signatory. In some cases, the wrong people are also being detained and deported, the letter states, citing human rights groups monitoring the expulsions.

Volker Türk, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, has not yet addressed the Haitian government’s request. But in Geneva on Tuesday, he called the situation in Haiti “deeply distressing” and touched on the deportations.

“It pains me to see the deportations, mistreatment, and hateful and racist smears that target Haitians in some countries of the region,” he said. “Haitians have the same rights to live free from violence, fear and misery as every person of every other nationality.”

Human rights groups say the expulsions are happening at all hours of the day and at various border points, putting Haitians in danger of being victimized by armed gangs upon their return to Haiti. Conille, in a post on X, said a task force has been formed to address the humanitarian and diplomatic response to the forced migration. At a minimum, he wants Dominican authorities to respect the protocols in place on how deportations of Haitian citizens should take place.

While the Dominican Republic accounts for the leader in deportations to Haiti, it is not the only country. Last month, the U.S. quietly resumed deportations to gang-controlled Port-au-Prince, despite the escalation in violence.

On Tuesday, the Turks and Caicos, a British dependent territory, announced the interception of a 34-foot boat transporting 32 undocumented Haitians. The migrants were all handed over to the immigration task force, where they will be processed for repatriation back to Haiti.

Edwin Paraison, a former minister of Haitians Living Abroad and longtime Haitian rights activist in the Dominican Republic, said he fears the ongoing mass deportations will exacerbate tensions. He would like to see both Haiti and the Dominican Republic sit down.

“They are now attacking Haitian” non-governmental organizations,” he told the Herald in a telephone interview. “We have now passed another level. We are in an extremely volatile situation and at any moment there could be an open conflict between Haitians and Dominicans.”

As Paraison was speaking from the Dominican Republic, an ultra-nationalist group called Codigo Patria was attacking the premises of a Haitian organization, MOSCHTHA, which has been working in the country for 40 years.

The Dominican government’s announcement last week came shortly after President Luis Abinader and Conille met privately in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

During his address, Abinader announced his intentions to take “drastic measures” to protect his border should the security situation in Haiti continue to deteriorate. But in his meeting with Conille, he gave no indication he would be leading such an operation, two sources familiar with the discussion told the Herald.

Both sides had agreed to work together, for example, to address some of the long-standing tensions between the two nations. One is the lack of healthcare among Haitians in the Dominican Republic that Abinader has said is straining his health system. Another is Haiti’s stepping up efforts to provide Haitians with documents. The Dominican Republic also offered to help with the arrests of gun traffickers and to resume intelligence sharing with Haitian authorities.

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