After a majority of Dominicans protested, the Human Trafficking Bill submitted to the Senate is being recalled by the Executive Branch. Opinion leaders warned the bill would boost illegal immigration from Haiti. Stipulations in the bill would tax Dominican companies to pay for refugee camps and ensure jobs and social services for vulnerable immigrants. Sectors complained most Haitians could qualify for legal status in the country, with jobs and social services covered, if the bill was passed as sent by the Presidency to the Senate.
The bill had been submitted on 12 December during Christmas times. Yet, a series of reports on the bill published in the Listin Diario helped people realize the possible impact the bill would have on Haitian migration. Already, more than 35% of births in public hospitals are to Haitian mothers, fully paid for by Dominican taxpayers. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians study for free in Dominican public schools and are granted Dominican student status at many universities. But influencers say the bill would exponentially increase Haitian migration beyond the already high present levels.
Listin Diario newspaper published a series of articles describing the proposal’s consequences for the tax-paying public. Nearly the next day after the articles appeared, president of the Senate, Eduardo Estrella said it would be studied and would be amended to accommodate to Dominican realities. With the Presidential announcement, the Executive Branch will attempt to carry out changes to assuage local concerns.
A similar bill is in effect in many countries around the world. The difference is that the Dominican Republic is a neighbor to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This country is a failed state, with increasing crime and violence and decreasing social services and jobs.
The Dominican government is signatory to several international conventions that deal with human trafficking and refugees, such as the 1951 Statute on Refugees that the Dominican Senate approved in 1977, and provides for free assistance, care and protection issued by the state to victims of trafficking.
For decades, the United Nations has sought that humanitarian refugee camps be set up in the Dominican Republic. Eduardo Sanchez Tolentino (El Piro) of Somos Pueblo TV suggested that the United Nations instead use an extension of land in Haiti and set up protected refugee camps for Haitians in Haiti.
Radio journalist Altagracia Salazar explains that while the Human Trafficking Bill has created a national stir, the real problem is that the government has been lax in dealing with many times denounced lenience and/or corruption in the military that allow transports carrying undocumented Haitians from the border to enter by issuing questionable visas or via major roads.
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Altagracia Salazar
13 February 2023