Dominican government respects Haitians, but Port-au-Prince is ‘hostile’

Washington.- The legal adviser to Dominican Republic’sPresidency on Tuesday said despite his country’s opening and respectfor Haitians, it only receives from the neighboring nation’s authorities "ahostile and unjustifiable response which fails to show reciprocity with the DominicanGovernment’s conciliatory attitude."

"Even with the limitations of a country sufferingimportant economic restrictions can say without boasting that the DominicanState does everything in its power to provide a dignified treatment and inadherence to human rights to all people who reside in our territory," Cesar Pina Toribiosaid during a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), on thecountry’s immigration policy and its enforcement of the Constitutional Courtruling on Dominican nationality.

The OAS heard a proposal from St. Vincent and theGrenadines, one of the Caribbean Community’s 15 members, to discuss thecontroversial ruling.

Pina Toribio said Haiti’s response to the ruling aimed atcontrolling the problem of undocumented immigration "creates unnecessarytensions" and cited as proof the Dominican people’s “unprecedentedsolidarity” toward its neighbor after the earthquake which devastated Port-au-Princein 2010.