JUNE 18 (Reuters) — A deadline for enforcement of a new immigration law on Wednesday (June 17) night is raising fears in the Dominican Republic of mass deportations of thousands of Haitian migrants as well as stateless Dominicans of Haitian descent.
Dominican officials say anyone lacking proper identity documents or who has not registered for a so-called “regularization” program before the deadline could face deportation.
But Immigration Minister, Ruben Dario Paulino Sem, said nothing has yet been solidified.
“It’s not a protocol. We have a working process. We are doing intelligence work, with different departments of the state. Depending on the work that we do, we will proceed with the operations,” he said just hours before the deadline.
However, Minister of the Interior and Police, Monchy Fadul, said a process was in place. According to Fadul, anyone who does not register by the 7 pm local deadline (2300GMT) will not be allowed to do so. Those who have documentation will receive a response from the Dominican Republic within 45 days. He also said that those who remain in line and within the specified area after the deadline will be attended to.
The Dominican government says the changes to its nationality laws aim to tackle illegal migration from neighboring Haiti. Human rights groups say the move is rooted in racism and xenophobia in the Dominican Republic towards darker-skinned Haitians.
Over the last century hundreds of thousands of Haitians have crossed into the more prosperous Dominican Republic to escape political violence or seek a better life, many ending up working as poorly paid sugar cane cutters.
Human rights groups say the 2014 law could impact as many as 200,000 Dominican-born people of Haitian descent who lost their Dominican citizenship after a constitutional court ruling in 2013 that has come under international criticism.
The ruling reversed the right of citizenship for foreigners born in the Dominican Republic, stripping children of Haitian migrants of their Dominican nationality, human rights groups say.
Dominican President Danilo Medina has said there will be no mass deportations. Government officials say Haitian migrants can be deported within 48 hours of the deadline. People registered under the regularization program as Dominicans of Haitian descent will have at least 45 days during which their applications are verified.
The Dominican army says 2,000 troops are ready to help coordinate the removal of people who fail to meet legal requirements to remain in the country.
The government says four “Welcome Centers” are being set up to receive undocumented people.
“Haina, which is a traditional welcome centre that belongs to the Ministry of Migration – and in an agreement that we signed yesterday, with the General Commander of the Army, Major-General Matos de la Cruz, the army of the Dominican Republic, we have four welcome centers, of passage, which are Jimani, Dajabon, Elias Pinas and Pedernales,” said Paulino Sem.
Local media have reported the government has dozens of buses ready to transport undocumented people to the Haiti border.
For the last few weeks long lines of Haitian migrants and Dominican-Haitians have formed outside a government office in the capital seeking to register under the regularization program, as police in riot gear stand guard.
Many Haitians were seen going through the process, but some said they had been waiting in line for hours.
“At one in the morning, I got in line and it hasn’t been moving and people who came this morning are inside working. This is not going to turn out well,” said Michel Butier.
Human rights officials say it is unclear how many people who have registered will be accepted as citizens, or face removal.
As many as 53,000 people born in the Dominican Republic lack of documents to make their cases, such as birth records. Of those, less than 9,000 have been able to register under the regularization program, according to Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International said it was concerned many Dominican-born people with a legitimate right to stay could be removed because they lack documentation.
