Lawmakers discard the UN’s amnesty call for Haitian immigrants

SANTO DOMINGO.- Ruling and opposition party lawmakers on Sunday called outrageous, unacceptable and baseless the UN’s Development Program ( UNDP) representative’s proposal to issue an amnesty for the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Haitians.

UNDP representative Valerie Juliand asked the Dominican government to grant an amnesty to allow the regularization of immigrants who’ve lived in the Dominican Republic for many years.

Chamber of Deputies president Abel Martinez said although Dominican Republic has done much for the Haitian people and will continue doing so, an amnesty proposal isn’t only far-fetched, but irresponsible and violates the most sacred principles of sovereignty. "Proposals such as these should be rejected by all the Dominican people."

For minor opposition PRDC party deputy Victor (Ito) Bisono, the country must comply with the regulations in the Immigration law, and those with enough merit for Dominican citizenship should be granted it.

"Every country in the world has their own laws, international agreements and enforce them, there should be neither scandals nor pressure from isolated statements or foreigners. What you need to have is authority, integrity, consistency and compliance with the law."