William Charpantier, coordinator of the National Roundtable for Migration and Refugees in the DR.
Haina – The National Board for Migration and Refugees in the Dominican Republic (Menamird) denounces that the “hunt” continues against Haitian immigrants in the country, who are transferred to the Haina Vacation Reception Center, where they remain in inhumane conditions.
Journalists are not allowed to enter the center to verify the reports of overcrowding and mistreatment of those held there.
William Charpantier, coordinator of the entity, informed that on repeated occasions they receive complaints from relatives and friends of detained immigrants about mistreatment and the subhuman conditions, deplorable sanitary situation, as well as limited food supply in which the immigrants, mostly of Haitian nationality, find themselves in the aforementioned holding center.
He points out that the information they receive at the Menamird is that the Haina holding center, in San Cristobal, operates worse than a prison and not as a shelter for irregular immigrants who are to be deported to their countries of origin.
“They are detained in different places and are not allowed to change their clothes and sometimes are not allowed to communicate with their families,” Charpantier stresses.
Migration responds
Venancio Alcántara, general director of Migration, reiterates that the repatriations will continue, because that is what the Migration Law establishes.
He expressed himself in these terms during visits to points of the border, where this organism builds Centers to receive the immigrants detained during the raids in different parts of the country and in this way decongest the Haina Vacation Center.
According to what he declared at the border, the Government decided to build centers in Dajabón and Elías Piña, because when the raids were carried out, the detainees were taken to military fortresses, where they remained in subhuman conditions.
He clarifies that these places are not to hold immigrants permanently, but for 24 or 36 hours, where they are purged, those who do not have documents are deported and those who are in the country in a regular manner are released.
“So we came to supervise and see what stage the works are in, because the engineers handed them over to us, and we came to see if they have flaws or defects to receive them formally to start working in a dignified, more humane manner, as required by law and international human rights agreements,” he said.
During the supervisory visit in Dajabón, Alcántara reiterated that the repatriations will not stop, because they are permanent tasks mandated by the Migration Law, as all the countries of the world do.
He maintained that no nation supports what the country does, and that the Migration Law states that all citizens who stay irregularly in the country must be deported to their territory of origin immediately, so the Migration Directorate is complying with this mandate.