A seminar sponsored by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (Funglode) concluded that the country needs to assume a proactive stance to deal with the problems stemming from the Dominicans that forcibly return to the DR after being deported from the US. The number is 30,000 over the past decade.
The seminar, called “The social and legal reality of the repatriated Dominicans”, heard testimonies from deportees about how difficult it was to get jobs and live normal lives.
The Dominican ambassador to the United States, Flavio Dario Espinal, told the seminar that it was not fair to blame the rise in the crime rates on the rise in the deportees from the United States. He said that there is no proof of this. He said that the statistics show that only 1% of the people deported turn to crime.
Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado suggested the creation of a relocation center that would be charged with the reception and re-education of the deportees. Other suggestions included credit to start businesses, a national program directed at immigrants and programs to follow deportees as they try and re-enter the Dominican society.
Many of these deportees do not even speak Spanish, having lived their entire lives in the United States.
According to colonel Francis Abreu, the National Police have a Department of Registry and Control for the deportees in operation since 2002.