Santo Domingo.-During this month, the General Directorate of Migration (DGM) has repatriated a daily average of more than 1,300 Haitians with irregular immigration status.
According to the agency’s statistics, from October 1 to 23, some 30,921 foreigners have been returned to their country. Meanwhile, 10,105 have left voluntarily, for a total of 41,026 Haitians.
Between January and October of this year, the DGM has repatriated 213,125 Haitians, of which some 173,800 have left voluntarily for a total of 386,925 people from the neighboring country processed.
As the days have passed, the flow of trucks and vehicles from the General Directorate of Immigration arriving at the Haina Vacation Reception Center has decreased, while on the outskirts everything remains calm.
People who went yesterday to said center where undocumented immigrants are processed before their repatriation, complained about the slowness of the purging process.
This week the general director of Immigration, Vice Admiral Luis Rafael Lee Ballester, recognized that behind the illegal entry of Haitians into Dominican territory there is a business in which various sectors participate.
“Not only can we put our finger on the military’s pain, but there are collateral actors who are doing business around this, who are buscones who collect, there are vehicles, there are means of transportation, there are places where there is accommodation, motoconchos participate and participate many people in these places here, in this situation,” said the vice admiral.
Military personnel in Haina Vacation assist those looking for family or friends.
In the last month, the Army of the Dominican Republic (ERD) has presented to the Public Ministry more than 20 submissions from people linked to the trafficking of undocumented immigrants and merchandise, including military personnel, police, members of the Immigration Directorate and civilians.
The Dominican government ordered the immediate execution of an operation with the objective of repatriating up to 10 thousand Haitians per week, as part of a plan that seeks to address the problem of irregular migration of Haitians in the country.
Pressures
The announcement of the operations brought with it an increase in international pressure on the Dominican Republic.
The United Nations (UN) recognized yesterday that “the sovereignty of the State and national security” of the Dominican Republic must be respected.
However, he called for “a humanitarian approach for those who need protection,” assuring that Haitians who are forcibly deported face threats to their lives and new displacement.
Last Tuesday, Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez described as senseless, before the UN, the request that the Dominican Government stop the repatriations of undocumented Haitians under the context of insecurity in Haiti, recently reflected with the massacre of more than 115 people in the community of Pont-Sondé, thus weighing the potential risks that this violence could exceed the limits of that country’s territory.
During his participation in the quarterly meeting of this body to follow up on the situation experienced by the Haitian people, Álvarez was emphatic when stating that “the Dominican Government cannot accept the senseless call to stop repatriations, since this would be the equivalent of declaring an open border, encouraging greater irregular migration to the country. We will never allow this.
We Dominicans have never been the cause of any humanitarian, economic or insecurity situation in Haiti. However, we have faced that crisis, for decades, practically alone.”
Position
-Chancellor
Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez considered that it is time to redouble efforts to support the Haitian people without hesitation. He stressed that it is impossible to think about holding elections in Haiti under current conditions
Haiti under constant siege of violence
Situation. Violence continues to dominate daily life in Haiti. Last Wednesday, the Police of that country announced that they killed at least 15 bandits in Arcahaie, a commune that has been the victim of repeated armed attacks in recent days by the coalition of gangs known as Vivre Ensemble (Living Together). , directed by Jimmy Chérizier, alias ‘Barbecue’.
Despite the presence of the agents that make up the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMAS), the Vivre Ensemble gang unleashed a new wave of violence in Port-au-Prince at the beginning of the week.
It is recalled that at the beginning of the month, the Gran Grif armed gang carried out an attack against civilians that left 70 dead and dozens injured, in the town of Pont-Sondé, in the Artibonite region.
