Immigration Department Director Jose Ricardo Taveras says that the Dominican Republic is a sovereign nation with its own immigration policies. Taveras rejected the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child’s recommendation that the DR should grant Dominican nationality to the children of undocumented foreigners born in its territory.
In an interview with Cesar Medina on his Hoy Mismo TV show yesterday, Thursday 5 February 2015, Taveras said that that the committee’s recommendation was aimed at absolving the international community of responsibility for the Haitian problem, and at passing it on to the DR authorities.
Taveras said that there are no precedents in any other country where the United Nations or another international body has imposed its criteria on immigration and nationality issues.
Taveras also said that the country has to implement an intelligent policy for deporting undocumented citizens of all nationalities. He also said the country needs to implement policies for organizing the labor market. He said that Law 185-04 prohibits the employment of temporary workers in tourism or in free zones. The Dominican government itself is one of the largest violators of labor laws in public works constructions.
Cesar Medina is the Dominican ambassador in Panama.
In a meeting held on Wednesday 4 February 2015, the UN Committee issued the following statement:
“The Committee is deeply concerned about the 2013 Constitutional Court ruling which might deprive tens of thousands of people of Haitian descent, including children born in the country from parents with an irregular migratory status, of their nationality. While noting the adoption of the 2014 Law on naturalization to address the consequences of this ruling, the Committee is concerned about its low implementation and that the naturalization process set therein does not fully comply with the Convention. It is also concerned that the State party has formally rejected the 2014 judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on a related case ordering reparation measures.”
http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2015/2/6/355284/Advierten-que-aplicaran-ley-169-de-naturalizacion
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15543&LangID=E