The national representative of the United Nations Population Fund, Sonia Vasquez, said on Wednesday, 29 August 2018, that the deportation of Haitians who did not register for the National Foreigner Status Legalization Plan (PNRE) will have serious consequences for the productive sectors that rely heavily on Haitian labor, and therefore she recommended that the Dominican government address this issue.
In her remarks to reporters, she said that deportation does not resolve the problem of undocumented people in the Dominican Republic. She said that deportations are certainly the right of any government, but that beyond this the Dominican Republic has a workforce that is principally Haitian and upon which several sectors are dependent. She noted that 26% of the Haitian immigrants working construction, 32% work in agriculture and there are many Haitians who take part in commercial and tourist activity.
She noted that the PNRE fulfilled its objective, but nevertheless it has had limitations since there are Haitians who continue to have serious problems with the documentation from their country of origin and many others did not take advantage of the program.
Sociologist Wilfredo Lozano says that the program has begun to establish order in the process of regulating the immigration process, above all with regard to Haitian workers. He noted quite pointedly that the program is not a panacea aimed at resolving all the problems.
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El Dia
30 August 2018
