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President Medina orders new measures to facilitate departure of undocumented persons from DR

The investment in the process would be RD$2 billion, with RD$1.7 billion already spent

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President Medina orders new measures to facilitate departure of undocumented persons from DR
SANTO DOMINGO. President Danilo Medina ordered yesterday the use of trucks for moving the belongings of undocumented foreigners who wish to leave voluntarily. The authorities also reported that some 17,456 have returned, while the total investment in the immigration activities will reach RD$2.0 billion.

The information was released by the Administrative Minister of the Presidency José Ramon Peralta, who together with other governmental authorities spoke about the process which began last 17 June. The official said that the service will be free and that now they will have available more comfortable buses as well as trucks for those that want to take their possessions.

He explained that the 15 day deadline which was granted for the voluntary departure of the foreigners might be expanded if the flow of the people requesting official transportation services continues. The buses and the trucks will be available from Monday until Saturday starting at 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon on the Maximo Gomez Avenue and Ortega y Gasset Avenue next to the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center. They will also be available in front of the Governors' offices in San Pedro de Macoris, La Altagracia, Santiago, Valverde, Barahona, San Juan and other provinces.

The purpose of the government is to offer more facilities to the foreigners in private buses which have more comfort and trucks which guarantee the protection of all their belongings, in order to comply with the promise of a humanitarian treatment.

Those who have left

The most recent statistics were offered yesterday afternoon during a press conference in the Presidential Palace and indicated that as of Thursday some 17,456 persons had voluntarily left the country.

The government reported that 365,000 persons are already within the framework of the Special Law 169 - 14 and the National Plan of Normalization, including students and pensioners.

Of this number, 102,940 foreigners presented their birth certificates; 69,997 presented passports, while 25,000 carried cédulas and the remaining had some type of identification document.

For the National Plan of Normalization there are 288,486; of Group A of Law 169 - 14, of the Central Electoral Board, there are 55,000; in Group B of Law 169 - 14 which is managed by the Ministry of Interior and Police, there are 8755 persons.

The Residency for Students at the Directorate General of Migration number 10,000 and the Pensioners of the sugar industry, which is also coordinated by Interior and Police add another 2724 for a total of 364,965 foreigners.

The officials explained that starting with the National Survey of Immigrants carried out in 2012 they have gone from having 20% of the migrant population with a normal status to a 75% with normal status. At that time 524,632 persons were in the country without documents, a total of 5% of the country's population.

On the 18th of this month, 598 persons left voluntarily; on the 19th,a total of 994, while on the 20th, the total was 1031 persons.

On the 21st some 3166 persons left, and on the 22nd the total was 6469; on the 23rd,2637 left and yesterday 2035 foreigners departed the country.

The government reiterated that "they guarantee that at no time will indiscriminate or collective deportations be carried out. This has not been done in decades of democratic life and, of course, it will not be done in the future."

The cost of the process

At first the authorities estimated that it would cost RD$1.0 billion in order to carry out the National Plan of Normalization. Yesterday Minister José Ramon Peralta said that the estimates that they now have is that this figure will reach RD$2.0 billion, an amount never before invested in a project of this nature.

He said that as of two weeks ago they had invested RD$1.7 billion, but they ordered more resources in order to continue supporting the foreigners who wish to return to their country of origin.

Until now the services for transporting persons and moving possessions has been totally free so that all of the foreigners who have belongings can take them to their country under conditions of safety and protection.

At the end of this grace period, the expenses will have to be covered by the foreigners.

Other foreigners

The authorities only offer numbers of foreigners of Haitian origin, but not of other nationalities; however, it is estimated that they are minimum in relation to the Haitians. According to the Minister of Interior and Police, José Ramon Fadul, the National Plan of Normalization of Foreigners covered 23 nationalities, and on one occasion he reported that they were making contact with the embassies of those countries so that they could facilitate the airline tickets in order for their citizens tha live in the Dominican Republic without a legal immigration status.