President Danilo Medina met with United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon during the Seventh Summit of the Americas that took place from 10-11 April 2015 in Panama City. Medina confirmed that the Dominican government would not be extending the National Foreigner Legalization Plan expiry date. The free fast-track facilities for applicants end on 15 June 2015.
As reported by the Presidency, Medina stated: “The Dominican Republic has done everything humanly possible to guarantee the rights of foreigners with irregular migratory status.” He highlighted that the country had embarked on the National Foreign Legalization Plan ordered by Constitutional Court ruling 168-13 and the Naturalization Law (169-14) to help people to legalize their status either as citizens or foreign residents.
Medina said that the international community must understand that the Dominican Republic is a poor nation that cannot take on responsibility for two. Medina added that the international community could not ask the Dominican Republic to do what it is not asking of others.
Minister of Interior and Police Jose Ramon Fadul told El Dia that so far 181,343 foreigners have applied under the Foreigner Plan and 7,870 have applied under the naturalization law.
In a conversation with Dominican journalists covering the Seventh Summit of the Americas in Panama, Medina said that the government has been under international pressure to naturalize a million foreigners with irregular status.
“All the pressure we have been under is because of the expiry dates,” he told the journalists. “When I went to the United Nations in September many people came up to me and said the timeframe was too short and that we should extend it so that more people could apply. I have taken this opportunity to ask the international community to move from words to action and help Haiti document its citizens,” he said.
After the President’s speech at United Nations General Assembly in September 2014, the government granted a 90-day extension to the naturalization law (169-14). In the first phase around 5,000 people applied, followed by another 2,000 in the second term, said President Medina.
Medina commented that if the government agreed to give nationality to everyone who claims to have been born in Dominican territory without presenting proof, it would have to grant it to around 800,000 foreigners living in the country, most of who would be Haitians.
“I told them, you are asking us to give citizenship to a million people and one poor country cannot bear the burden of two. You have to understand that. I believe they understood,” he said, as reported in El Dia.
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