In a statement issued at the conclusion of the 26th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community held from 26-27 February 2015 in Nassau, Bahamas, the Caricom countries called for maintaining a posture of “no business as usual” with the Dominican Republic. In the statement, the Caricom countries insisted that the ongoing foreigner regularization process is arbitrarily depriving people of their Dominican nationality and condemned the Dominican government for “repudiation of international law.”
Commenting on the statement, Dominican Minister of Interior and Police Ramon Fadul said that measures applied affecting Haitian immigrants in other Caribbean islands are much less flexible. He said that Caricom members have applied immigration measures that violate due process and pointed out that the DR’s Foreigner Legalization Plan is helping foreigners of all nationalities to regularize their status.
“For the first time in the history of the world a foreigner regularization plan is free, thanks to President Danilo Medina’s understanding of the need, which is a gesture of solidarity that is not usual in this type of programs,” he stated.
In addition to the plan being free, offices have been set up nationwide to help people in need of legalizing their status and requirements and steps have been considerably reduced through 15 June 2015.
Fadul described the Caricom position as hypocritical: “If you look at what is happening on the small islands that are Caricom members, they are deporting all Haitians, and do not allow their entry. Then I do not understand their morality, how they can speak in this way, when they are the first to apply rigid and inconsiderate measures to their Haitian brothers,” he said.
Nonetheless, Caricom heads of government have chosen to single out the Dominican Republic for trying to legalize its immigrant population, even though their own countries were introducing more stringent immigration control policies.
After months of campaigning actively in international forums to condemn the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court’s decision to regulate the status of thousands of families and foreigners in the country, last year Trinidad and Tobago announced its own national campaign to end illegal immigration, which could lead to the expulsion of more than 110,000 undocumented foreigners from its territory, according to a statement from T&T’s National Security Minister, Gary Griffith.
The campaign in Trinidad and Tobago includes inspections and “door-to-door” searches for undocumented foreigners. In an October 2014 press conference, Griffith said: “If you are an illegal immigrant, from Africa, the Caribbean or Mars, you are breaking the law, and all I’m doing as a minister is to ensure that this policy is enforced”.
According to the campaign, anyone who does not regularize his or her status faces automatic deportation.
The Bahamas has also stepped up measures to regularize the status of their illegal immigrants, who mostly come from Haiti and Cuba.
Bahamian Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said that the new measures seek to ensure that the people who live and reside in The Bahamas have the lawful authority to do so, either because they are citizens of The Bahamas or they have permits to reside or work there. Mitchell has stated that anyone who is not in the Bahamas lawfully should expect increased vigilance and enforcement by the law enforcement authorities.
No one is accusing the Bahamas or Trinidad & Tobago of xenophobia or racism.
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