An editorial in El Dia newspaper criticizes the government for apparently abandoning efforts to restrain illegal immigration. The newspaper highlights the unchecked flow of indigent Haitians through the border, with thousands burdening the Dominican public health system.
The editorialist comments on Haitian immigration: “Apparently only the Dominican authorities are unaware of the unchecked illegal migration from Haiti. The Haitian migration is overflowing, with the aggravation that it generates a mountain of additional problems and international discredit for the country. That migration is bleeding public services, destroying our fragile health system.”
The editorial also mentions the increasing flow of Venezuelan migrants that flee the desperate political and economic situation in Venezuela.
The editorial that is headlined “Open borders” concludes:
“Our authorities have not wanted to assume that there is an irresponsible international community committed to ensure the Dominican Republic take on as its own the problem of poverty and institutional disorder in the neighboring country.
“Urban centers and rural areas are overflowing with illegal Haitian immigrants, undocumented in their country and with a number of agencies that have shown no consideration when it comes to pressure the Dominican state to take on these Haitians as our own.
“There is no perceived firm action on the part of the authorities to deal with this phenomenon.
“Apparently the Dominican state has left the border to its fate so that all who want may enter.”
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
7 July 2017
