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View Full Version : Government rejects claims by De Baca



NewsWhore
01-18-2011, 03:30 PM
The Dominican government has issued a press statement in response to the publication in the Nuevo Herald of an article in which the country was warned of possible sanctions by the United States because of an alleged lack of commitment to combat the trafficking of Haitian children. "The Dominican government has strengthened all measures, current regulations and intended to prevent the use of the scenario of a tragedy such as Haiti has experienced, for violating the rights of the most vulnerable", said the government in the document that was published on the webpage of the President of the Republic.

Entitled "What the Nuevo Herald did not publish", the government defended itself against the supposed disregard for the illegal traffic in Haitian minors, listing the measures taken since the earthquake on 12 January 2010 in Haiti, as well as the agencies involved in these processes. The statement stressed that a few weeks after the earthquake, the government decided to establish a Special Commission, called the "Sub-Cluster for the Protection of Children for the Dominican Republic's Response to the Earthquake in Haiti.

They indicated that this Sub-Cluster is made up of the National Council of Children and Adolescents (Conani), the Specialized Frontier Security Corps (Cesfront) and the Armed Forces (Digfarcin), the Migration Department (DGM) and the First Lady's Office, among other national and international institutions. The bulletin says that this agency prepared a protocol "that is strictly followed in order to guarantee that actions that violate the integrity of Haitian minors do not occur and that they are guaranteed a dignified treatment".

Luis De Baca, US Ambassador-at-Large of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, told El Nuevo Herald that the DR has until June to implement recommendations made by the US Department of State to persecute and penalize children traffickers. Child smuggling has not been tried in the DR. De Baca says there is a need not only to arrest the traffickers, but also their accomplices in government. "In the DR we have not seen the first, and that is where the frustration is," he said. He said the recommendations were included in the report on People Smuggling 2010 that ranked the DR at level 3, the lowest. ?

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