The Dominican government announced it is pulling out from the signing of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, responding to major rejection for the agreement nationwide. The Global Compact is being promoted by the United Nations as the link between migration and development policies.
The announcement was made by legal advisor to the President, Flavio Darío Espinal, speaking at the Presidency. He said the country would not participate in the upcoming Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration to be held 10-11 December 2018 in Marrakesh, Morocco.
A committee of experts had reviewed the government’s initial decision to sign after pressure to not sign reached a high level. Espinal announced that the government determined that the signing would generate commitments to the Dominican state that could undermine its ability to enforce its migration rules and effectively implement the migration policies that compliance with those standards requires. Espinal said that the implementation of a pact of that nature, for what it involves and for the implications it has, requires a basic consensus in the Dominican society that he said does not seem to exist in the current circumstances.
Migration experts had said that the pact that would create a new paradigm for mass migration, raising migration to the level of a human right. This analysis alarmed many politicians, business representatives and even many Dominican citizens causing a generalized backlash in rejection of the signing in Marrakesh.
Most Dominicans learned about the pact only recently, after the El Pais newspaper reported that several countries would not sign over concerns of national security. The United States was one of the countries that had announced it would be part of the Pact. Other countries that have said have said they will not sign are: Australia, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Israel, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Croatia. Like the Dominican Republic, Switzerland and Italy just recently announced they would not be party to the Pact.
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5 December 2018
