Plan to Regularize Foreigners expired nearly a year ago, but complaints persist

Santo Domingo.- Complaints persist nearly one year after thedeadline for foreigners to register in the Plan to Regularize Foreigners (PNRE)expired.

During that period, 288,466 mostly Haitians registered, ofwhich 102,940 applied just by presenting a birth certificate from theircountry; 69,997 signed with IDs; 95,164 with passports and 20,345 fail to produceany documents.

The figures prompted the National Bureau for Migration andRefugees in the Dominican Republic (MENAMIRD) to ask the Government to implementa complementary PNRE, which allows the more than 200,000 people to regularize theirimmigration status, who hadn’t qualified.

MENAMIRD coordinator William Charpantier said according tothe 2012 Census, there are 500,000 foreigners in the country and only 239,000were regularized.

Outlet diariolibre.com reports that calls to Interior andPolice minister Jose Ramon Fadul and Immigration director Ruben Paulino tocomment on MENAMIRD’s request went unanswered.

Charpantier said Immigration inspectors are conducting massand arbitrary deportations of people to Haiti since around two months,including those who present PNRE documents.

He added that the Interior and Police Ministry documents aren’trecognized and that the deportation protocol established under the regulatoryplan is being violated. "When a child is born to the person or when theygive birth in the case of women; when you have to buy a cell phone or make afinancial transaction, you cannot do so because none of those documents isrecognized."