The Dominican Republic joins the Bahamas in anticipating the inauguration of Haitian president-elect Rene Preval later this year; the Dominican Foreign Minister also wants to talk about controlling the inflow of illegal Haitian immigrants.
Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso told a Dominican newspaper recently that the illegal migration of Haitians across the border is his nation’s most pressing issue, and that regularizing the status of the illegal Haitian migrants already living in the Dominican Republic is also a high priority.
The Bahamas Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell met recently with Mr. Preval in New York, and was, in his words, “cautiously optimistic” about possible improvements in stability in Haiti once Mr. Preval is inaugurated.
Financial Services and Investments Minister Vincent Peet told the Journal during his tenure as Minister of Labour and Immigration that Mr. Preval’s election, particularly the international acceptance of the manner in which it was carried out, improves chances of ratification of a bilateral agreement hammered out between the Bahamas government and Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s administration, before Mr. Aristide left office.
Although Minister Mitchell was unwilling to go into the details of his meeting with Mr. Preval as they related to bi-lateral matters, he said he thought Mr. Preval was “looking forward to working with The Bahamas on resolving whatever issues [need to be addressed].”
According to Dominican Foreign Minister Morales, as soon after Mr. Preval’s inauguration as possible, a Dominican-Haitian Bilateral Commission will meet to take up the issues of immigration, border security, trade and investments, and environmental concerns.
Human rights activists have also accused the Dominican Republic of violating the Haitian immigrants’ human rights, much as similar activists have accused the Bahamas in the wake of a roundup of Haitian migrants on Friday.
Of those accusations, Minister Morales told El Caribe – a Dominican paper – that “there are serious NGOs (non-governmental organizations) but there are also shyster NGOs.” According to Minister Morales, it is these “shyster” NGOs that are denouncing the Dominican Republic, in order to justify the funds they receive.
The foreign minister admitted that sometimes incidents occur in isolated communities, “like in all countries,” but chalked that up in part to the large amount of Haitian immigrants who reside in that country.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recently estimated that there are more than half a million undocumented Haitians in the Dominican Republic, not counting Dominicans of Haitian parentage.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
