The

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

(DR) and Haiti experienced a diplomatic crisis in 2013. The principal point of conflict was an issue of trade restrictions, but it unfolded against the background of the DR's attempt to return thousands of DR residents of Haitian descent to Haiti. More than 3,000 Haitians had been expelled from the DR in the first half of the year. On June 6, 2013, Haiti imposed a ban on the importation of chickens and

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

from the DR, citing indications that there was an outbreak of

bird flu "Bird Flu" is an urumee melam-dance song by recording artist M.I.A. on her second studio album '' Kala'' (2007). It was released as a digital download in 2006 through XL Recordings under exclusive license to Interscope Records in the US. Cr ...

there. DR officials said other types of flu but not bird flu had been identified. On June 10, the

Pan American Health Organization The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is an international public health agency working to improve the health and living standards of the people of the Americas. It is part of the United Nations system, serving as the Regional Office for ...

stated that no cases of bird flu had been found in the DR. On June 12, the President of the Dominican Republic,

Danilo Medina Danilo Medina Sánchez ( : born 10 November 1951) is a Dominican politician who was President of the Dominican Republic from 2012 to 2020. Medina previously served as Chief of Staff to the President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 1999 ...

, sent a committee led by the Secretary of Industry and Commerce, José Del Castillo Saviñón, to Port-au-Prince to resolve the dispute. A meeting between Haitian Foreign Minister and Dominican Foreign Minister Carlos Morales on June 17 produced no resolution. The DR ships 30 million eggs and 1.5 million chickens to Haiti monthly. By June 19, activity at the four border crossings between the two countries had come to a standstill. Medina announced that the DR would work to identify new markets and grow those already established in Puerto Rico and Venezuela. The head of the Dominican Association of Egg Producers said that thousands of poultry farm workers, who he identified as Haitians, would have to be fired. Casimir said Haiti wanted to find a way to reopen trade, while Medina said he could not wait and would have to take "drastic measures". Presidents

Michel Martelly Michel Joseph Martelly (; born 12 February 1961) is a Haitian musician and politician who was the President of Haiti from May 2011 until February 2016. He was sanctioned by the Canadian Government for his involvement in human rights violations ...

of Haiti and Medina of the DR discussed their differences on 30 June during a meeting of the Petrocaribe oil alliance nations in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

. Medina said that Martelly admitted there were no problems with the quality of eggs and chickens from the Dominican Republic and that the ban had been imposed as a matter of economic policy based on Haiti's difficulty in collecting tax revenues associated with the imports. The import ban remained in place. On July 19, the Haitian government prohibited the importation of plastics from the Dominican Republic, arguing that they were not of good quality and that Haiti needed to reduce pollution caused by plastic. On September 23, 2013, the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court ruled that children born to non-citizens in the Dominican Republic after 1929 are not and have never been citizens of the Dominican Republic. Since 2010 the DR constitution has denied citizenship to any non-citizen born "in transit", but the court extended that language to cover any undocumented person resident in the DR and their descendants. The ruling affects 458,233 Haitian workers living in the Dominican Republic and it can leave more than 200,000 people stateless. One analysis reported that the court decision created the fifth largest groups of

stateless people In international law, a stateless person is someone who is "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law". Some stateless people are also refugees. However, not all refugees are stateless, and many people who are st ...

in the world. A group of writers who protested the ruling compared its impact to

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

and said it represented "the reinstating of the old racism that many have fought against". They described its impact: The government of the DR said the decision would allow for the proper documentation of non-citizens and allow the government to establish clearly their means of becoming legal residents of the DR. Advocates for the stateless criticized the DR's procedures as inadequate and ill-suited to an impoverished rural population that lacked the required birth registration records. On October 1, Haiti recalled its ambassador from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican government's acceptance of implementation of the court ruling was harshly criticized by

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

human rights offices, by 15 countries in the

Caribbean Community The Caribbean Community (CARICOM or CC) is an intergovernmental organization that is a political and economic union of 15 member states (14 nation-states and one dependency) throughout the Caribbean. They have primary objectives to promote econo ...

(Caricom) and by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. Amnesty International said the DR had "effectively wiped four generations of Dominicans off the map".

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:2013 Dominican Republic-Haiti diplomatic crisis 2013 in the Dominican Republic 2013 in Haiti Dominican Republic–Haiti relations 2013 in international relations Diplomatic incidents