Former Dominican ambassador in Washington, Flavio Dario Espinal, in an op-ed commentary in Diario Libre criticizes as out-dated and apocalyptical the features in major media on the Dominican migratory policies that seek to give legal status to all residents in the Dominican Republic.
“The discourse has been built on Dantesque images associated always with the 1937 massacre, which makes them more dramatic and gives an apocalyptical sense to what is supposedly will happen,” he writes.
He adds that there has been little or no interest on behalf of reporters and feature writers of pausing to research or reflect upon what has happened in this country in the past year and a half, in the implementation of the government’s immigration policies and programs in regards to putting in place the legal mechanisms to regularize the condition as Dominicans or immigrants of around 350,000 persons of the immigrant population and their descendants.
Espinal asks: “Is there really a connection between what happened in 1937 with what is happening at present?” He replies: “We cannot deny, as is the present discourse in our country that we have had a historic relation with Haiti marked by abuse, exploitation and denial of rights, but this does not justify that the events of 1937 should be construed as the backdrop for what is happening today.
He highlights that more than 288,000 persons, most Haitians, have registered for the National Foreigner Legalization Plan, plus those that registered under the Special Naturalization Law 169-14, for more than 350,000 persons participating in the procedures.
Espinal comments: “No migratory regularization process reaches the universe of the migratory population, and thus many persons have been left out of the Plan and are susceptible to repatriation, but the immigration figures cannot be underestimated or ignored as if they do not represent an important landmark in Haitian migration in the Dominican Republic.” http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/2015/06/25/i1210641_hacia-otro-holocaustoa.html