Caricom again slams Dominican Republic on Haiti row

Santo Domingo.- Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders on Tuesday expressed "serious concern" with the difficulties which people of Haitian descent face in Dominican Republic, EFE reports.

The statement by Caricom is the latest salvo in a war of attrition pitting the Caribbean’s biggest economy and the regional bloc over the issue of undocumented Haitian immigrants, but which they also reject.

"We’re concern with the increasing number of policies that seriously affect Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic" said Caricom leaders in a statement released today.

The regional leaders said Govt. Dominican representatives didn’t extend the deadline to apply for the Foreigners Regularization Plan, in which only 6,937 of those affected could request legalization on time.

Dominican Republic’s special Naturalization Law and Plan emerged after a Constitutional Court ruling in September 2013, which sets the parameters to request citizenship, and unleashed a backlash across the region.

The deadline to apply for the Plan, aimed at people without an official ID and who were born outside the country, ended on February 1.

According Caricom, the fact that 6,937 persons requested to join the Plan implies that "over100,000 people are vulnerable to expulsion."

Caricom cited the Inter-American Human Rights Court ruling handed down on October 22, 2014, which orders the Dominican court to amend its laws to recognize the citizenship of those born in that country.