The Ministry of Interior and Police is considering the option of giving provisional immigration status for two years to everyone who registered under the National Foreigner Regularization Plan, even if they have not provided the required documentation. <\/p>\n
According to Washington Gonzalez, deputy minister in charge of the plan, up to yesterday, Monday 18 May 2015, barely 2% of the 207,425 who registered have completed all of the requirements. <\/p>\n
He said that in two months’ time they will be handing over provisional residency to between 50,000 and 57,000 foreigners and added that the process had been successful in terms of the number of people registering, as projected.<\/p>\n
However, he commented there was a strong possibility that the applicants who do not receive residency as they have not provided the information required, may still be given provisional residency, which can then be converted to permanent status in two years.<\/p>\n
On the question of repatriations, he said that 60,000 Haitians had been returned to Haiti since January 2015 and according to army commander general Jose A. Matos de la Cruz, “Operation Shield” had 370 soldiers who rotated along with another 300-man unit. The role of these teams was to immediately send back anyone detained at the border while trying to enter the Dominican Republic illegally. People who have crossed the border and are caught inside the country are handed over to the Migration Office to be returned home. He said that the numbers in the first couple of months of the year were averaging 1,000 a day and now it was down to around 200 a day. <\/p>\n
Haitian nationals who were unable to register under the plan because of the problems obtaining the required documents from their embassy in the Dominican Republic have already begun to return to Haiti.<\/p>\n