Haiti and Dominican Republic are two very different countries on one single island. If a person is born in Haiti, he is 2.5 times more likely to die as a baby than if he is born in the Dominican Republic. He’ll be 10 times much poorer and have a much shorter life expectancy when compared to Dominican Republic. “Dominicans don’t like the Haitian, we are never treated as equals” – Haitian Border Market Vendor. This senseless discrimination embodies the asymmetry that exists on this island.

Haiti is poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and is prone to natural disasters due to the change in climate and French colonization. It also has a history of corruption and incompetent governments which in more than one instance have been overthrown either by the military or due to riots against the government. In recent years, the country of Haiti has faced a number of natural and man-made crises, some of which are still not resolved. Even after such extremely difficult humanitarian circumstances the Haitians face, racism and discrimination adds another blow to the condition of the local people. Such racism and discrimination comes from their only neighboring country in the island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic.  

The immigration policy and citizenship policies in the Dominican Republic has been changed in the recent years. The government is keeping an eye on the Haitians existing in the Dominican Republic by knowing where they are, what they are doing, how many there are through a ‘regularization program’, which basically a euphemism. This so called program is targeting anyone of Haitian descent, even citizens rounding them up and then deporting them.

This paper is going to focus on the very core of racism and discrimination faced by the Haitians on a regular basis along with several human rights violations, the history of the country, the different crises that the country has faced and still facing, international aids by different countries and organizations and how beneficial such aids has been.   

Keywords: human rights, violation, climate change, crises, natural disasters, discrimination, racism.