By Esteban Cabrera: New York: The 2022 Report on Human Rights of the Dominican Republic issued by the Department of State and released by the North American Embassy considers that the National Police and the National Directorate of Migration depend on the Ministry of Interior and Police, but in practice, they rely directly upon the President. The Airport Security Authority, the Port Security Authority, and the Border Security Corps have some national security responsibilities and report to the Ministry of Defense and, through it, to the President.
“The National Directorate for Drug Control, which is staffed by both the police and the armed forces, reports directly to the President, as does the National Department of Investigations. The National Directorate for Drug Control, the National Department of Investigations and the National Directorate of Migration have important internal security responsibilities. The General Directorate of Prisons reports to the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic. In general, the civil authorities maintained effective control over the security forces. Reports were received that members of the security forces committed certain abuses,” the report states.
“Significant human rights concerns included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings by law enforcement; cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment inflicted by police and other government agents; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detention; arbitrary interference with privacy; serious government corruption; and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex persons,” it stipulates.
“In some cases, the government took steps to prosecute and punish officials who committed human rights abuses or acts of corruption, but the inconsistent and ineffective application of the law sometimes led to impunity,” the Department’s report states. Of US State.
The report reports the disrespect for the integrity of people. It points out that in the Dominican Republic, there is an arbitrary deprivation of life and other illegitimate homicides for political reasons.
The report says the State Department received several reports that the National Police and other government security forces had committed arbitrary or unlawful killings against civilians. According to the National Human Rights Commission, at least 170 people were killed by police in 2022. Although the Attorney General’s Office prosecuted some high-profile cases of police abuse, civil society representatives claimed that many killings and abuses went unreported due to the population’s lack of trust in the government to investigate and press charges or fear of police reprisals.
It establishes that reports of homicides and unexplained deaths during migration operations were received, which increased considerably in the year’s second half. In November, the newspaper Hoy reported the end of a Haitian citizen, Delouise Estimable, while she was in the General Directorate of Migration (DGM) custody. The victim’s parents alleged that she had been beaten by immigration agents and locked in a detention truck before her death. There was no indication that the DGM investigated the case or took steps to hold immigration agents accountable.
In June, the newspaper Diario Libre reported that a group of seven individuals, including three soldiers, killed a Haitian national and set fire to eight houses in the La Rosa sector, in the Majagual industry, in a mountainous area of the Galván municipality, Bahoruco province, according to the report.
A report published by the Socialist Workers Movement (MST) states that in March, DGM agents shot dead a young Haitian man in his home and wounded another during a raid in a residential area of Las Matas de Farfán, San Juan province, where undocumented Haitian immigrants were suspected of living. The MST described the operation, and others carried out throughout the year by the DGM, as plagued by arbitrariness, theft, and abuses by the migration authorities.
A report published by the Socialist Workers Movement (MST) states that in March, DGM agents shot dead a young Haitian man in his home and wounded another during a raid in a residential area of Las Matas de Farfán, San Juan province, where undocumented Haitian immigrants were suspected of living. The MST described the operation, and others carried out throughout the year by the DGM, as plagued by arbitrariness, theft, and abuses by the migration authorities.
Disappearances, c. Torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, and other related abuses On these topics, the 2022 Report on human rights in the Dominican Republic presented by the US State Department establishes that No complaints of disappearances were received by or on behalf of government authorities.
However, although the law prohibits torture, beatings, and physical ill-treatment, there were reports that members of the government security forces carried out these practices.
It describes the deaths of three people between March and May 2022, José Gregorio Custodio, Richard Báez, and David de los Santos, while in police custody, reignited the national debate on police reform. The police officers involved in the incidents were suspended and turned over to the Attorney General’s Office for prosecution. The Ministry of the Interior and Police publicly acknowledged the cases and recommitted to launching police reform initiatives.
Civil society organizations and other observers expressed concern about the harsh and often degrading treatment that immigration authorities give undocumented Haitian migrants and stateless persons of Haitian descent during DGM detention and deportation operations and in detention centers. Of the DGM, particularly at its center in Haina. Reasons for concern included arbitrary arrests, physical mistreatment of detainees, entry into homes without a warrant, revocation or destruction of identity documents, theft of personal belongings by immigration agents, confinement of children in cells with adults, sexual violence, inadequate access to medical care throughout the removal process, illegal removal of unaccompanied children and pregnant or nursing mothers, and other hostile or abusive treatment.
In August, the government appointed a new director general of the DGM. According to international and civil society observers, under the direction of the new director general, the problematic practices and behaviors of the DGM agents continued.
In September, a Dominican citizen detained by immigration agents on the assumption that he was Haitian reported that immigration agents had repeatedly beaten him to silence his protests. Later, a partner organization managed to free him while he went to the border to be deported, but he was stopped again at a military checkpoint as he returned home. After several days, he has released thanks to the help of a relative and a lawyer.
In November, several witnesses reported seeing immigration agents beat detainees with sticks, including two Haitian nationals who were beaten unconscious enough to require the intervention of emergency medical professionals. In another incident, a Haitian citizen reported being beaten during detention and later thrown from a moving vehicle by immigration agents as punishment for arguing with them. The incident left her with visible injuries to her face that were not properly treated, leading to an infection. The government provided no evidence that it had seriously investigated allegations of human rights abuses by immigration officials or reviewed its detention practices.
In January, President Abinader created the Commission for the Transformation of the National Police, which he chaired. The commission comprised the Minister of the Presidency, the Minister of the Interior and Police, representatives of civil society, and an executive commissioner. The commission was in charge of applying the recommendations of the December 2021 report of the Working Group for the Transformation and Professionalization of the National Police, which, among other recommendations, called for updating police protocols based on ethics, service to the citizenship, and the protection of human rights.
Impunity continued to be a problem within law enforcement, especially the National Police and the DGM.
