During the first three months of 2025, Dominican authorities deported 2,530 minors in an irregular migration situation to Haiti, 982 of whom were unaccompanied by their parents or guardians at the time of their identification, according to data from the National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI).

CONANI President Ligia Pérez explained that the return process is part of the Program for the Identification, Care, and Protection of Children and Adolescents on

Displacement. During the first two years of the protocol's implementation, 2,736 unaccompanied minors were returned to Haiti.

Analysis of the figures presented shows a significant increase in the number of minors returned to Haiti in recent months. The President of CONANI attributes this increase to the tightening of immigration measures implemented by the executive branch in early April https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-44640-haiti-flash-presidents-abinader-hardens-his-position-against-illegal-haitians.html

Ligia Pérez reaffirmed her institution's commitment to ensuring that this process takes place with the least possible impact, while guaranteeing the fundamental rights of these minors, particularly unaccompanied minors.

Asked about the protocol for the identification and return of these minors, she explained that when a child is taken to an Interception Center after being identified, whether by the National Police, immigration services, or another civil society institution, because they were alone on the street, the person receiving them must protect them.

The Attorney General's Office and CONANI are then informed of the minor's care, and the care protocol is immediately activated, involving the system's institutions, including the National Health System, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labor, and other relevant entities.

She specified that this process is applied to all minors in these circumstances, regardless of their immigration status. For children of Haitian nationality, the aforementioned mobility protocol applies. "We are in direct communication with the Institute of Social Welfare and Research (IBESR) in Haiti, which is in some ways CONANI's counterpart.

Once these minors are identified, if we find that they have no relatives here, we entrust them to IBESR, which takes them into care [...]," she explained.

S/ HaitiLibre