Press Release from the United Nations High Com­mis­sioner on Refugees (The UN Refugee Agency)

The UN refugee agency today urged Haiti’s neigh­bours to keep their bor­ders open in the event of any exo­dus of refugees from the strife-torn Caribbean nation.

Asked by reporters in Geneva about the con­cerns of some Caribbean states over a pos­si­ble new exo­dus from Haiti in view of the ongo­ing unrest in the coun­try, UNHCR spokesman Ron Red­mond said very few indi­vid­u­als had so far gone to the Domini­can Repub­lic, which shares a land bor­der with Haiti, and that there had been no major out­flow to date by sea. He noted, how­ever, that it is UNHCR’s job to be pre­pared for poten­tial refugee crises, wher­ever they occur. More­over, tens of thou­sands of peo­ple did flee Haiti dur­ing sim­i­lar strife in 1994, and the region must again be pre­pared for this possibility.

Hope Han­lan, the head of UNHCR’s Bureau for the Amer­i­cas, urged gov­ern­ments in the region to keep their bor­ders open. “In the event of any out­flow, we hope and expect that the United States and the small islands in the Caribbean would respond humanely and allow peo­ple to have access to an asy­lum process,” she said. “The islands most likely to be affected are the Domini­can Repub­lic, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and Cuba.” Han­lan noted that the Domini­can Repub­lic, Jamaica and the Bahamas are all sig­na­to­ries to the 1951 Refugee Con­ven­tion and its 1967 Pro­to­col, and said UNHCR was ready to help them ful­fil their oblig­a­tions. She also acknowl­edged the lim­ited resources avail­able to the region’s smaller gov­ern­ments. “We under­stand the con­cerns in the Caribbean over using their lim­ited emer­gency sup­plies for hur­ri­cane dis­as­ter relief to respond to a refugee cri­sis,” she said. “For that rea­son, we stand ready to help the coun­tries in the region respond to a pos­si­ble refugee situation.”

UNHCR is cur­rently await­ing a request from the Domini­can Repub­lic for help in review­ing and imple­ment­ing its exist­ing con­tin­gency plan, Han­lan said. As with other coun­tries in the region, UNHCR would be will­ing to assist the Domini­can Repub­lic to receive refugees and respond to their needs. The refugee agency has under­taken sev­eral mis­sions to the Domini­can Repub­lic in recent months, both to help author­i­ties deal with a back­log of asy­lum seek­ers and imple­ment their asy­lum leg­is­la­tion as well as to dis­cuss con­tin­gency plans for pos­si­ble refugee arrivals.

In Cuba, UNHCR recently car­ried out a joint con­tin­gency plan­ning exer­cise at the request of the Cuban gov­ern­ment. Because Cuba has reg­u­larly received Haitians in the past, it does have facil­i­ties avail­able for a pos­si­ble influx, Han­lan said, but these would need to be upgraded. The con­tin­gency plan for Cuba was also shared with other Caribbean countries.

Han­lan said UNHCR would also meet with US offi­cials and Caribbean embassies and author­i­ties both in Geneva and in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., to fol­low the sit­u­a­tion closely as it devel­ops and to dis­cuss pos­si­ble responses to any crisis.