The Dominican Republic has deported or repatriated nearly 11,000 Haitians in the past week alone, fulfilling a pledge that it will do so weekly as neighboring Haiti scrambles to handle the influx, besieged by poverty and gang violence.

Washington.- The president of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Lynn Raymond Young, convened an extraordinary session to address the mass deportations of Haitians from the Dominican Republic.

Haiti's foreign minister on Monday blasted a policy announced last week by the neighboring Dominican Republic to deport tens of thousands of migrants back to Haiti, where gang violence is fueling a devastating humanitarian crisis.

The Dominican Republic, sharing the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, announced last week its plan to deport up to 10,000 migrants per week who are in the country illegally, a significant increase compared to the previous rate.

The Dominican Republic announced Wednesday that it would start massive deportations of Haitians living illegally in the country, expelling up to 10,000 of them a week.

Haiti's foreign minister on Monday blasted a policy announced last week by the neighboring Dominican Republic to deport tens of thousands of migrants back into Haiti, where gang violence is fueling a devastating humanitarian crisis.