The Haitian village of Malpasse, just across the border from the Dominican Republic, is home to approximately 40 freshly-deported Dominican-Haitians and Haitian migrants who are being housed at the Fond Bayard community school.Run by pastor Sinas Saintilus, the school's classrooms have been repurposed as a place of shelter. Many of the deportees in Malpasse were born in the Dominican Republic, making them rightful citizens under the Dominican constitution, but they were forced to leave the country despite their legal status.Haitian President Michel Martelly announced last week that the Haitian government would not acknowledge deported Dominican-Haitians, making people like those housed at the school in Malpasse effectively stateless.VICE News visited the Fond Bayard school in Haiti to see firsthand what conditions are like at what has become a halfway house for those deported under the Dominican Republic's new naturalization law.Watch "Families Are Deporting Themselves to Haiti (Dispatch 3)"Watch "Citizenship Limbo for Dominican Haitians (Dispatch 2)"In Photos: A Community in the Crosshairs of the Dominican Republic's Naturalization LawDominican Republic Gives Haitians Until Midnight to Register or Face Deportation
Advertisement