Former deputy and minister of Energy and Mines, Pelegrín Castillo says the Abinader administration is being ambiguous regarding relations with Haiti. Castillo pointed out that on one hand, Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez declares that the Dominican government will not accept the opening of centers for refugees or refugees and that it disassociates itself from the Contingency Plan on Massive Flows of Immigrants drawn up during 2019 by the National Migration Institute.
Yet, he questioned that the government is backing the Preclearance Treaty with the United States that was signed in 2016 and includes clauses that would subject the refugee and asylum policies of the Dominican state to the tutelage of the United States.
Castillo demanded more coherence and more firmness in defending national sovereignty. He urged the Abinader government to renegotiate the preclearance agreement to eliminate clauses he calls “clearly neocolonialist in nature.”
Castillo considers that the Dominican government must exhibit consistent policy if its official position to reject a Dominican solution to the Haitian problem be credible and worthy of respect.
The Punta Cana International Airport corporation has invested over US$47 million to build a separate facility that would enable flights to come from domestic airports in the United States in addition to flights from international airports. The possibility of flying from US domestic airports would be a boom for tourism in Punta Cana, the most developed tourism region in the Caribbean. The terminal was ready to enter into operation in 2017, but service was never initiated because the treaty was contested.
The Punta Cana International Airport states on its website: “Preclearance allows for US immigration, customs, and agriculture inspection processes and Transportation Security Agency (TSA)-equivalent aviation security screening, to occur on foreign soil before boarding a direct flight to the United States, without further US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing or TSA security screening upon arrival. Passengers are cleared as they arrive at the airport. Originating passengers may arrive 2 to 3 hours before departure, while transfer passengers arrive up to the minimum connection time. This creates self-metering of the passenger flow through the inspection process. More passengers are cleared with shorter wait times and fewer resources. The Punta Cana International Airport will be one of the 18 airports around the world approved with this facility. Preclearance Operation is planning to start in March 2017 with an investment of US$47 million.”
The preclearance facility never went into operation after it was objected by the Constitutional Court. With four new judges recently appointed to the Constitutional Court, a new opinion is sought.
In 2015, the Constitutional Court issued a first opinion on the treaty writing that clauses violated the Constitution and recommended a renegotiation with the US government given the excellent bilateral relations. A second opinion is now requested. It is not clear if after the treaty was reviewed by the Constitutional Court in 2015 new clauses were added.
Recently, the Constitutional Court president, Milton Ray Guevara warned that the judges of the high court are not there “to please or favor particular interests above the precepts of the law and the Constitution.” He was speaking on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the higher court.
Read more:
Listin Diario
Constitutional Court
DR1 News
Diario Libre
Hoy
Listin Diario
EL Dia
US CBP
USA Today
28 January 2021