The director of Migration Major General Ruben Paulino Sem announced yesterday, 25 June 2015, that the government is footing the bill for the moving of all the household items of Haitians who have not regularized their status and voluntarily choose to return to Haiti. The Migration Agency says that those who voluntarily leave still have the option to apply for residency in the future as their record will be clean.
On Thursday, Major General Ruben Paulino Sem said that free buses continue to be available for those traveling with up to two suitcases, but now the travel assistance has been expanded to include the household items that will be transported on trucks.
In the first six days after the expiration of the Plan on 17 June 2015, the Dominican government estimates that 17,456 Haitians have returned voluntarily to Haiti. Many of those repatriated took all their household items with them, contracting their own private transport.
News reports are that during the same period less than a dozen had taken advantage of the free bus service that began last week.
Major General Paulino Sem said that the services of private company buses have been contracted and that these are more comfortable than the buses the Migration Agency normally uses to transport deportees. News reports say that air-conditioned buses are being used, but there have been few Haitians have used the service in the first week.
The decision to offer free truck and cargo service was made after Migration received numerous requests from the foreigners who wanted to leave with their household items, said General Paulino in a press conference.
The buses and trucks are located at Maximo Gomez y Ortega y Gasset, near the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic center and at the city governments in San Pedro de Macoris, La Altagracia, Santiago, Valverde, Barahona, and San Juan de la Maguana among others. The service is receiving passengers from 8am to noon when the buses will leave for Haiti on Monday to Saturday.
Paulino Sem says that the government offers the services to guarantee the protection of the goods of the undocumented residents and assures that all foreigners using these services will be treated with courtesy and respect.
He said the free services will be offered through 6 July 2015.
In the same press conference held yesterday at the Presidential Palace when the announcement of the free moving services was made, Administrative Minister of the Presidency said that the National Foreigner Legalization Plan had cost the government RD$1.7 billion so far. The government expects to spend RD$2 billion towards the implementation of the National Foreigner Legalization Plan (PNRE), which is RD$1 billion more than initially contemplated. The goal of the government is to regularize the status of all persons living in the country. He said already 365,000 persons have been registered under the PNRE or the Special Naturalization Law 169-14.
The number is 66% of the estimated 524,632 undocumented foreigners that counted in the 2012 Census. This represents 5% of the total Dominican population.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2015/06/25/i1211591_plan-nacional-regularizacin-costara-pas-unos-rd2-mil-millones.html