Dominican Republic has a plan ready for the repatriations
Fadul says they will begin in urban areas and then in the countryside
Adalberto de la Rosa
SANTO DOMINGO. Just 28 days from the conclusion of the Normalization Plan of Foreigners, the government has prepared the logistics needed to repatriate undocumented persons beginning with the beggars in the urban areas and then on to the farming plantations.
This was reported yesterday by the Minister of Interior and Police, José Ramon Fadul, who made it clear that they are not dealing with a witch hunt, not with Army personnel going in pursuit of people of color, but rather it will be done in a rational manner and always respecting the dignity of the persons. He insisted that there will be repatriations of all foreigners, no matter what their nationality.
"We already have everything ready with the Armed Forces, and Migration. The logistics will be carried out with the dignity that is required, so that we are going to begin with the persons that are wondering around the streets, persons who have no jobs and later we are going to go into the farms."
The official recommended that persons who have still not presented themselves with their information to do it in the time remaining of the Plan in order not to complain later on.
Fadul explained that the repatriations will be done in buses, "it can't be done on airplanes because then we would have to find a lot of airplanes. Now those that are not from Haiti, we have made contact with the embassies of those countries regarding the problem of the airplane ticket; the majority of them have budgets for this".
He said that apart from the Haitians, who are the majority, there are many French, Spanish, Americans, Canadians, plenty of South Americans, and some from the Middle East, a total of 23 different nationalities.
He indicated that he does not have a precise number for the non-- Haitian foreigners that there are in the country, but he said that there are more than 3000 who were detected by the Normalization Plan.
He rejects criticisms
The Minister of Interior said in addition, that he is prepared to face the criticisms that will be made, and regarding this, he answered the statements by Alberto Navarro, the chief of the mission from the European Community regarding the Normalization Plan. He was supposed to have said that the European Union and the United Nations would not permit massive repatriations of Haitians when the deadline for the National Normalization Plan is up.
"I believe that regarding the internal affairs of this country, nobody can intervene, or issue opinions; he can go to the European Union and issue his opinions because there they really do mistreat immigrants, you can see them. So the statements I see as inopportune, inappropriate and unacceptable by us. They have to take into account that the sovereignty of the country is in the hands of the Dominican Government and we cannot permit interference of any type in the determination of the People."
He argued that he doesn't know if there are prejudices against the plan that the government is developing, but he reiterated that when the deadline is up, they will begin to apply the immigration laws, and everyone who is not properly normalized will be sent to his country of origin.
He made it clear that the idea is not that everyone of color will be stopped in order to determine if they are a foreigner, but rather they will do a humane job without affecting the rights of any of the foreigners because this is not the policy of President Danilo Medina.
Recent statistics
He reported that so far 211,000 have gone to the Normalization of Foreigners Plan of which 80,000 had passports and other elements in the column "B" and the rest had a cédula or a birth certificate and other requirements. With reference to Law 169, there are 8755 persons registered were working apart from those that belong to the Central Electoral Board, which has still not offered the statistics.
Suspended repatriations
The authorities have reported that the massive repatriations are on hold until the end of the National Plan of Normalization, but that in the meantime they are impeding undocumented foreigners from entering the country. All along the frontier there are 54 access points to the country, but the most congested are six, according to the authorities. The Government has said that when the Plan is concluded there will be no repatriations on the days of the binational markets in order not to affect this sector, but they will adopt prevention measures.
This was reported yesterday by the Minister of Interior and Police, José Ramon Fadul, who made it clear that they are not dealing with a witch hunt, not with Army personnel going in pursuit of people of color, but rather it will be done in a rational manner and always respecting the dignity of the persons. He insisted that there will be repatriations of all foreigners, no matter what their nationality.
"We already have everything ready with the Armed Forces, and Migration. The logistics will be carried out with the dignity that is required, so that we are going to begin with the persons that are wondering around the streets, persons who have no jobs and later we are going to go into the farms."
The official recommended that persons who have still not presented themselves with their information to do it in the time remaining of the Plan in order not to complain later on.
Fadul explained that the repatriations will be done in buses, "it can't be done on airplanes because then we would have to find a lot of airplanes. Now those that are not from Haiti, we have made contact with the embassies of those countries regarding the problem of the airplane ticket; the majority of them have budgets for this".
He said that apart from the Haitians, who are the majority, there are many French, Spanish, Americans, Canadians, plenty of South Americans, and some from the Middle East, a total of 23 different nationalities.
He indicated that he does not have a precise number for the non-- Haitian foreigners that there are in the country, but he said that there are more than 3000 who were detected by the Normalization Plan.
He rejects criticisms
The Minister of Interior said in addition, that he is prepared to face the criticisms that will be made, and regarding this, he answered the statements by Alberto Navarro, the chief of the mission from the European Community regarding the Normalization Plan. He was supposed to have said that the European Union and the United Nations would not permit massive repatriations of Haitians when the deadline for the National Normalization Plan is up.
"I believe that regarding the internal affairs of this country, nobody can intervene, or issue opinions; he can go to the European Union and issue his opinions because there they really do mistreat immigrants, you can see them. So the statements I see as inopportune, inappropriate and unacceptable by us. They have to take into account that the sovereignty of the country is in the hands of the Dominican Government and we cannot permit interference of any type in the determination of the People."
He argued that he doesn't know if there are prejudices against the plan that the government is developing, but he reiterated that when the deadline is up, they will begin to apply the immigration laws, and everyone who is not properly normalized will be sent to his country of origin.
He made it clear that the idea is not that everyone of color will be stopped in order to determine if they are a foreigner, but rather they will do a humane job without affecting the rights of any of the foreigners because this is not the policy of President Danilo Medina.
Recent statistics
He reported that so far 211,000 have gone to the Normalization of Foreigners Plan of which 80,000 had passports and other elements in the column "B" and the rest had a cédula or a birth certificate and other requirements. With reference to Law 169, there are 8755 persons registered were working apart from those that belong to the Central Electoral Board, which has still not offered the statistics.
Suspended repatriations
The authorities have reported that the massive repatriations are on hold until the end of the National Plan of Normalization, but that in the meantime they are impeding undocumented foreigners from entering the country. All along the frontier there are 54 access points to the country, but the most congested are six, according to the authorities. The Government has said that when the Plan is concluded there will be no repatriations on the days of the binational markets in order not to affect this sector, but they will adopt prevention measures.
Adalberto de la Rosa
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