OHCHR.19) UNHCR buttressed its presence by sending a five person emergency team to the Dominican Republic. The World Food Program, UNICEF, UNFPA and other agencies also had small representations in the Dominican Republic. Nevertheless, for three to four months the UN system, under the leadership of the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Dominican Republic, led the response to border protection and took responsibility for the support and management of the camps in an approximately 20 km area on the Haitian side of the border. 20 First UNHCR and then the UN system as a whole appealed for funding to support continued relief not only in and around Port au Prince, but also for assistance to the Haitians living outside of camps and in the Dominican Republic. The latter activities were aimed at sustaining protection activities in the Dominican Republic and initiating quick impact projects on the Dominican-Haiti border, in collaboration with the Dominican government.21 In the Dominican Republic, Haitians were not in camps, but rather with families, in medical facilities, or in shelters. Specific protection activities in the Dominican Republic included assistance to: 1) medical patients and families; 2) other non-medical but vulnerable groups; 3) counselling activities on cross-border issues; 4) family tracing/reunification. UNHCR also provided small amounts of aid to Haitians in camps. The protection issues facing displaced persons in other parts of Haiti were especially worrisome in the border area, particularly in relation to the problem of abandoned and atrisk children. Frequently quite young children who had lost parents in the earthquake made their way to the border, together with hundreds of other Haitians, to find and reunite with relatives in the Dominican Republic. In the best of circumstances, family members located there knew of their arrival and met them at the border. In more tragic instances, the people who came for the children were there to traffic or otherwise abuse them. Women, as well as children, traveling alone to these camps were vulnerable to sexual abuse and some were so badly treated that UNHCR determined they needed to be resettled in another country.22 Within a few months, UNHCR with partners from UNFPA and UNICEF were participating in protection efforts orchestrated from the Dominican side, and in collaboration with the Dominican Republic’s Child protection agency, CONANI.23 CONANI and UNICEF were able to create databases that helped with family reunification. Other UN agencies or NGOs also based themselves on or near the border to assist the disaster victims there. The conciliatory Dominican response to the arriving Haitian earthquake victims did not last. The Dominican Constitution, in effect since 1966, was revised and, coincidently, made public in January 2010 – the time of the earthquake. The former Constitution and Dominican legislation had recognized as citizens all persons born in the country, with the exception of diplomats and persons in transit—the latter defined as those remaining fewer than ten 19
http://www.unhcr.org/4bc71c109.pdf The UN Country team in the Dominican Republic assumed responsibilities in Haitian territory at the request of the Port au Prince based UN offices, which were very heavily burdened with crisis response in the Capital. Notes from Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR Representative October 2013; and comments of Valerie Jullliand, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Representative in Dominican Republic, December 2013. 21 http://business.un.org/en/documents/7882 22 Interview with Anna Greene. 23 The Jesuit Refugee Service and US Conference of Catholic Bishops have expanded at greater length on the problems noted here. 20
10 | P a g e Version: 16 December 2013