One-Respe is Haitian Creole for "respect one another". This would hardly have come to light were it not that Bishop Roy Warke of the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross has been on a mission to the Dominican Republic, sponsored by Christian Aid and Action Aid.
The 10-day tour was by members from a wide spectrum of church life and backgrounds, who will report on anti-Haitian sentiment in the Dominican Republic and social division there by early March. The report will go to the United Nations, the EU, church leaders and politicians at home, as well as in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
During the visit the Cork bishop and his colleagues, including Mr Gerard Granado, the Roman Catholic associate general secretary of the Caribbean Council of Churches, met ministers of the Dominican government, the Haitian charge d'affaires and church leaders. But "most important of all we visited and talked with those Haitians who are living in sub-human conditions and, because of a lack of legal documents, are regarded as nonpersons and therefore under the constant threat of deportation".
Because of a history almost as convoluted as this country's, fate decreed that economic circumstances in Haiti would lead to the more prosperous Dominican Republic becoming a magnet for the Haitian exodus. But the Dominican Republic and Haiti have an interwoven and complex past. It has led to the poorer Haitians becoming the downtrodden, the oppressed. When Bishop Warke was there he and his team learned that some 15,000 Haitians were waiting at the border in dire circumstances to gain entry.
Financial restrictions have been put in place that in effect make it impossible for the average Haitian, existing on about $240 a year, to get across to a better life. The result is a huge influx of illegal aliens - estimated to be anywhere between 600,000 and 800,000 people - a classic recipe for enslavement, which is happening. Even children born in the Dominican Republic to Haitians find obstacles placed in their path; difficulty in entering the school system; in achieving the right to vote; and generally participating in society. The report, Bishop Warke hopes, will make a difference.