Overview:
Lourdia Jean-Pierre died throughout a house start in El Seibo, Dominican Republic, after avoiding a hospital out of worry of being deported. A petition is now calling for accountability.
NEW YORK — Greater than 800 individuals have signed a petition condemning the Dominican authorities and demanding justice for Lourdia Jean-Pierre, a 32-year-old Haitian girl who died on Might 9 throughout a house start in El Seibo, Dominican Republic. Jean-Pierre reportedly prevented going to the hospital out of worry she could be deported underneath new immigration guidelines.
In her house, with out medical employees, Jean-Pierre delivered her child alone. As labor pains intensified by means of the early morning hours, her companion, Ronald Jean, urged her to hunt hospital care. However she refused, afraid that hospital employees would report her to immigration authorities. She died earlier than assist may arrive.
Her demise has sparked worldwide condemnation and has introduced renewed consideration to the hazards undocumented Haitian migrants face within the Dominican Republic.
The petition, initiated by a human rights group, seeks to assemble a million signatures to demand accountability and justice for undocumented Haitian migrants within the Dominican Republic.
“We are saying sufficient to a state and ruling elites which can be femicidal and racist, who’ve made Black girls—immigrants, Dominicans of Haitian descent, and Dominicans—a navy goal, the middle of hate promotion, elevated injustice, the applying of unjustified and unlawful power and violence, and an excuse to cowl up the whole absence of the rule of legislation,” the petition states.
“It is a regime sustained by racism, anti-Haitianism, classism, and patriarchy,”
the petition reads
The petition shared within the Spanish language additionally contains particulars of what allegedly occurred after Jean-Pierre’s demise. It claims that Dominican police detained her companion and new child little one, handing them over to immigration brokers. Authorities then allegedly sealed the house with Jean-Pierre’s physique inside, barring entry. No health worker got here to certify the demise. It was neighbors, the petition says, who documented the scene in a video and helped prepare a burial, regardless of worry of retaliation.
Within the final two months, mass expulsions of Haitian migrant girls—some in labor, pregnant, or with newborns—have escalated underneath new immigration insurance policies launched by Dominican President Luis Abinader. A lately enforced hospital directive now requires sufferers to current identification, proof of deal with, and a piece letter earlier than receiving care—successfully denying medical companies to many undocumented migrants.
“We denounce these actions to the worldwide neighborhood for his or her data and motion, given the fascist regime and deprivation of rights prevailing within the Dominican Republic, sustained by racism, anti-Haitianism, classism, and patriarchy. A regime during which the three branches of the state act in unison, ” the petition additional states.
As of Might 23, the petition has garnered 811 signatures and continues to hunt broader help. Advocacy teams, human rights activists, and professors from Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Cuba, and different Latin American nations have signed the petition, highlighting the worldwide concern over the remedy of Haitian migrants within the Dominican Republic.
Jean-Pierre leaves behind 4 youngsters—two of them nonetheless in Haiti—and a new child, now within the care of a relative within the close by city of Miches.