In April 2025, the Dominican Republic deported 23,123 Haitian migrants to the borders separating the two countries, according to the Groupe d’Appui aux Rapatriés et Réfugiés (GARR). This figure, presented at a GARR press conference on May 14, 2025, illustrates a clear increase in deportations over the month, affecting a vulnerable population including children, people with reduced mobility, pregnant and nursing women.
Details of the returnees’ profile
GARR specifies the composition of this group:
15,934 men
5,426 women
824 girls
934 boys
This wave of repatriations has spared no category, including pregnant women and children, raising serious humanitarian concerns.
Conditions and denunciations
GARR denounces the degrading conditions in which these expulsions are being carried out. According to the organization, many migrants are brutally arrested, sometimes on their way to hospital, and are forced to board buses to be repatriated without adequate accompaniment or assistance. The Belladère reception center, designed for sixty people, now receives several hundred migrants every day, far exceeding its capacity.
The anti-Haitian migration plan, reinforced by the Dominican authorities since April, has also restricted access to hospital care for Haitian migrants, exacerbating their precarious situation. Testimonies report that fear of deportation drives some pregnant women to avoid hospitals, putting their lives in danger.
Official response
Faced with this crisis, the Haitian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its concerns to the Dominican ambassador, demanding that the rights of the repatriated be respected in accordance with international commitments and the 1999 repatriation protocol. The Haitian government has also announced a voluntary repatriation program to provide dignified support for nationals wishing to return to Haiti, but according to the GARR, reception facilities remain largely inadequate.
