A few days before the expiry (August 26, 2018) of the second extension (3 years in total) of the National Plan for the Regularization of Foreigners (PNRE), the Haitian-Dominican Concertation Commission (CCHD), a binational group of Civil society, while welcoming the efforts of the Dominican State in the implementation of the PNRE, asks the Dominican government to reconsider this deadline.

The CCHD expresses its deep concern about the expiry of this second extension granted to Haitian migrants registered with the PNRE in order to complete their application for regularization, pointing on the one hand to the failings on the Dominican side in terms of communication and awareness of the people concerned and secondly the deep deficiencies of the Haitian state to provide the necessary identity documents to its citizens, two key factors that leave in uncertainty and the likely threat of evictions after August 26, of tens of thousands of Haitians who are still not regularized.

The member organizations of the CCHD signatories of a note sent to the leaders of the two countries at the end of an ordinary Assembly on August 7 and 8 last ( For Haiti : Fondation Zile-Haiti (FZ), Groupe d’Appui aux Rapatriés et Réfugiés (GARR), Observatoire de Recherche sur les Rapports Élites-Populations et les Migrations (ORREM), Réseau Frontalier Jeannot Succès (RFJS), Sant Pon Ayiti (SPA) and Service Jésuite aux Migrants – Solidarité Fwontalye Haïti (SJM-SFw-Haïti) and for the Dominican Republic : Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico Haitianas (MUDHA), Movimiento Socio Cultural para los Trabajadores Haitianos (MOSCTHA), Centro de Observación Migratoria y el Desarrollo Social en el Caribe (OBMICA), Centro de Desarrollo Social (CEDESO) and Centro Cultural Domínico Haitiano (CCDH)) recommend to both nations to :

"Combine their efforts to revive the work of the bilateral joint commission as soon as the new Haitian government is installed to establish a frank and productive dialogue on the migration issue.

Open this high level dialogue space to the formal participation of the island Civil Society through representatives of organizations whose work is dedicated to the different aspects of relations between the two countries."

However, at two years of general elections in the neighboring Republic, the "explosive" sensitivity of the file of Haitian migration in Dominican territory, millions of dollars invested in the PNRE and after 3 years of extensions granted to Haitians to regularize (in addition ot the 15 months of the PNRE), ont can doubt, except a miracle, that the Dominican Republic grants a new deadline or a moratorium to this program, that it affirms, for several months, want to close definitively on August 26th. Especially since the arguments on the lack of the Haitian State to document its citizens so that they can regularize, have existed for more than 4 years and date well before the establishment of this Plan of regularization, without ever having found solution for Haitians living in the Dominican Republic.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25236-haiti-social-nearly-200-000-haitians-risk-being-expelled-from-dr.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25188-haiti-dr-a-little-more-than-80-000-haitians-deported-or-turned-back-in-7-months.html

PI/ HaitiLibre