Dominican government denies any commitment to regularize Haitians
The Government of the Dominican Republic denied that it promised to regularize the situation of Haitian immigrants and workers in the country, as the Haitian Prime Minister’s Office claimed earlier today.
“(…) there was no kind of commitment to regularize the situation of Haitian immigrants and workers in the country or to support the candidacy of the former Haitian Minister of Public Health, Florence Guillaume Duperval, for the position of general director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO),” said the Presidency of the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, pointed out that it is “impossible” for the Dominican Republic to regularize Haitian immigrants if they do not have documents.
“That was made very clear to him,” the Dominican head of state told the press who addressed him on the subject and reiterated that “no agreement was reached.”
President Luis Abinader’s position on the issues was that the Government of Haiti should make efforts to provide official documents to all immigrants and workers who are in the Dominican Republic.
Regarding the candidacy for PAHO, Abinader indicated that he “could not” define “no support” in view of the fact that the Government of Panama, a partner in the Alliance for Development in Democracy, also has a candidacy for the same position and the regard.
According to information from the Haitian Prime Minister’s Office, an agreement has been reached between the two countries on the issue of regularization. “Prime Minister Ariel Henry and President Luis Abinader agreed to regularize the situation of Haitian immigrants and workers in the Dominican Republic, providing them with identification documents and revitalizing the Mixed Haitian-Dominican Commission,” the office said in a document.
Upon his departure from the meeting on Thursday, Abinader refused to offer details about the dialogue and only limited himself to saying that, “obviously”, bilateral issues were discussed and that the press will receive information about it later.