The International Organization for Migration (IOM) informs that it has provided, Tuesday, a voluntary return assistance, in coordination with the Dominican General Directorate of Migration (DGM), to more than 150 Haitians who have found refuge in the Dominican Republic after the earthquake of January 2010 and which have asked for assistance to return to their country, Haiti.

The Haitian families, which have decided to return to their places of origin in the Haitian departments of North, North East, North West, and Artibonite, will be escorted by IOM staff and migration officials from the Dominican Republic and Haiti, to ensure safe and secure passage across the border in Dajabón.

In Haiti, the returnees will receive reintegration assistance from the Juanista Sisters, a religious organization based in Ouanaminthe, in the Nord-Est department. The reintegration assistance will include training on starting a business, providing start-up grants [USD$300 per person according to our source] and ongoing monitoring for up to three months.

An estimated 200,000 Haitians are thought to have arrived in the Dominican Republic in the months following the January 2010 earthquake. According to DGM officials in the second largest city, Santiago, there are more than 50,000 Haitians in the city.

These post-earthquake arrivals have increased the migration-related concerns of the local population in Santiago. DGM has received complaints from neighbourhood groups regarding the crowded and slum-like conditions in which some of the migrants are living, the strain on the city’s basic infrastructure, unhygienic conditions, deteriorating security conditions... For these reasons, the DGM has requested assistance from the IOM to find solutions, and provide humanitarian assistance to migrants wishing to return to Haiti, but that can not afford.

In coordination with NGOs, community-based organizations and religious congregations, IOM staff spent the month of May speaking to Haitian migrants in 16 neighbourhoods of Santiago. IOM found that many had crossed into the Dominican Republic in the initial days after the earthquake seeking medical attention, while others arrived in the following months in search of economic opportunities.

Many of those Haitians arriving post-earthquake have chosen to return to Haiti and have asked IOM for assistance. Some of the reasons cited by most of the migrants who have sought assistance from IOM to return to Haiti are poor job prospects, language barriers, lack of food security and poor access to health services and education.

Through the IOM Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) project, funded by the US Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), IOM has registered a total of 2,131 Haitian earthquake victims in the Dominican Republic wishing to return home. Until today, 1,150 (without counting those who were repatriated Tuesday) have been provided voluntary return and reintegration assistance by IOM and its partners.

HL/ HaitiLibre