Unresolved cases of Haitian child trafficking in the Dominican Republic : the missing links between the official discourses and the reality

Abstract

The presence of Haitian children in the streets of Dominican Republic increased after the terrible earthquake that occurred in Haiti the 12 January 2010. However, it is not a new phenomenon. Studies already dating from 2002 treated the issue as child trafficking. In spite of an anti-trafficking law approved in 2003 in Dominican Republic, the cases of these children remain unresolved. A mixture of reasons is behind these unresolved cases. This study offers an analysis of the problematic, based on the sociocultural realities of the people living in the two countries through the institutional ethnography method of inquiry. The starting point is the description of the reality of these children and it will be contrasted with the official discourses and practices. In order to pertinently capture what is the situation by this period, I did a field trip to the Dominican Republic and interviewed the main actors related to the issue of child trafficking. The aim of taking these two realities is to disclose the gaps between both in order to start working on the breaches. I hope that my work could contribute to the fight against these cases of Haitian trafficked children, bringing some light to such a hidden and horrible phenomenon