Director of Immigration Jose Ricardo Taveras is denying the reports that circulated yesterday, Thursday 10 January that the government had agreed to admit 1,080 Haitians, most without the required legal documentation. The consulate that operated in Dajabon was moved to Ouanaminthe (Juana Mendez) to assist the Haitians in getting their legal documentation.
“No Haitian citizen or anyone from any other country may enter without meeting the legal requirements established in the Dominican Republic,” announced Minister of Interior and Police Jose Ramon Fadul at the Presidential Palace yesterday. He said that the state has the sovereign right to regulate immigration.
Minister of Interior and Police Jose Ramon Fadul and the director of Immigration Jose Ricardo Taveras made the announcement following a meeting with President Danilo Medina at the Presidential Palace. Presidency Minister Gustavo Montalvo, Presidency Administrative Minister Jose Ramon Peralta, Presidential legal adviser Cesar Pina Toribio and Armed Forces Minister Admiral Sigfrido Pared Perez were also present.
Father Regino Martinez, head of the NGO Frontier Solidarity had told the press yesterday, Thursday 10 January that following a meeting with President Danilo Medina the group of undocumented workers would be allowed to re-enter as a way of resolving the dispute, but Taveras and Fadul said the law would be applied.
Taveras said that of the 1,080 Haitians, only 280 have Haitian passports but lack Dominican visas. He said 800 only have a card and no legal identification document. He said that what was agreed is that those who have the card should initiate the process to get their Haitian passports and then apply for the visas.
Father Regino Martinez had said that the Haitian government had promised to issue birth certificates and identification cards to more than 800 of the illegal Haitian workers and that the other 280 had expired visas that were easy to renew.
The head of the Specialized Border Security Corps (Cesfront), General Guerrero Clase said that everything was under control on the Dominican side of the border but journalists from Listin Diario reported that the Army and Cesfront had arrested dozens of Haitians who were trying to cross over into the Dominican Republic and saw several others climbing through the woods in groups of three, four and five.
For many years the Dominican government has been flexible in allowing Haitian workers to cross the border without legal documentation. Father Regino Martinez has argued that the Haitians will cross anyway and what is at issue is the cost they will have to pay to come over through the legal border crossing or through the woods.
The government announced the opening of the traditional Dajabon market day this Friday, 11 January.
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