NewsWhore
01-04-2012, 12:50 PM
President Leonel Fernandez is due to visit Haiti next week for the second anniversary of the 12 January 2010 earthquake. Fernandez was decisive and first in sending massive relief to Haiti from the Dominican Republic as soon as news of the disaster broke.
During his visit, he will inaugurate a university built with local funds in Limonade. The university is a US$50 million investment and will cover an area of 300,000 square meters. Fernandez is traveling to Haiti with Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, and Minister of Economy and Planning Temistocles Montas. President Fernandez's last visit to Haiti was to attend President Michel Martelly's inaugural ceremony.
Now breaking from its usual silence and laissez-faire attitude, the Dominican government is responding to allegations in the international press criticizing the authorities' recent token efforts to organize the civil registry and status of mass Haitian immigration. For years the government has allowed the entry of hundreds of thousands of impoverished Haitians, hundreds of thousands of which have irregularly obtained Dominican ID cards. Now, coinciding with new efforts to organize the country's civil registry n as evidenced by forged MLB ball player identification, ease of drug traffickers acquiring multiple identities - the irregularities affecting Haitian migration have become more apparent.
Recently, government spokespersons have been taking a proactive stance. Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso recently responded to an op-ed piece in Canada's Globe & Mail. Globe & Mail readers also responded with several comments to correct statements in the piece. Morales Troncoso said that the DR and Haiti maintain harmonious and close relationships, and makes the point that investigation and possible future annulment of civil registry documents in no way violates international human rights commitments assumed by the Dominican Republic if children born to Haitians in the DR have the right to a different nationality. Morales Troncoso said that the Dominican Republic cannot be asked to bear the burden of the human and economic costs of the serious situation that affects the Haitian people, who have seen as the best solution their migration to the Dominican Republic, which cannot be expected to assume the consequences of the serious deficiencies that plague Haiti's civil registry either. He said that the Dominican Republic as a sovereign nation could determine who its citizens are and the rules for migration within the limits established by international law. He said it is incorrect to say that the country has recently changed its citizenship policy to discriminate retroactively against Haitians. He added that on several occasions the Supreme Court of Justice has ruled on the issue of the children of illegal immigrants, regardless of their origin, which confirms that if the children are born to parents who are legally in transit, they are automatically excluded from obtaining Dominican nationality, and the children of anyone who cannot justify their legal entry or stay in the country cannot benefit from the greater right of citizenship, he explained. He stressed this is not an issue of leaving the immigrants without a country, as Art. 11 of the Haitian Constitution establishes that everyone born to a Haitian father or mother will have Haitian nationality at birth.
www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/stripping-dominicans-of-haitian-descent-of-their-citizenship-is-unjust/article2282499/ (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/stripping-dominicans-of-haitian-descent-of-their-citizenship-is-unjust/article2282499/)
www.noticiassin.com/2012/01/chancilleria-respondio-a-medio-canadiense-que-cuestiona-relacion-entre-rd-y-haiti/ (http://www.noticiassin.com/2012/01/chancilleria-respondio-a-medio-canadiense-que-cuestiona-relacion-entre-rd-y-haiti/)
The Dominican Ambassador in Washington, Anibal de Castro has also replied to an article in The Economist that stated the Dominican Republic had changed its laws.
www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2011/12/dominican-haitian-relations (http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2011/12/dominican-haitian-relations)
Anibal de Castro's response: http://m.economist.com/newsbook-21542152.php
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
During his visit, he will inaugurate a university built with local funds in Limonade. The university is a US$50 million investment and will cover an area of 300,000 square meters. Fernandez is traveling to Haiti with Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, and Minister of Economy and Planning Temistocles Montas. President Fernandez's last visit to Haiti was to attend President Michel Martelly's inaugural ceremony.
Now breaking from its usual silence and laissez-faire attitude, the Dominican government is responding to allegations in the international press criticizing the authorities' recent token efforts to organize the civil registry and status of mass Haitian immigration. For years the government has allowed the entry of hundreds of thousands of impoverished Haitians, hundreds of thousands of which have irregularly obtained Dominican ID cards. Now, coinciding with new efforts to organize the country's civil registry n as evidenced by forged MLB ball player identification, ease of drug traffickers acquiring multiple identities - the irregularities affecting Haitian migration have become more apparent.
Recently, government spokespersons have been taking a proactive stance. Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso recently responded to an op-ed piece in Canada's Globe & Mail. Globe & Mail readers also responded with several comments to correct statements in the piece. Morales Troncoso said that the DR and Haiti maintain harmonious and close relationships, and makes the point that investigation and possible future annulment of civil registry documents in no way violates international human rights commitments assumed by the Dominican Republic if children born to Haitians in the DR have the right to a different nationality. Morales Troncoso said that the Dominican Republic cannot be asked to bear the burden of the human and economic costs of the serious situation that affects the Haitian people, who have seen as the best solution their migration to the Dominican Republic, which cannot be expected to assume the consequences of the serious deficiencies that plague Haiti's civil registry either. He said that the Dominican Republic as a sovereign nation could determine who its citizens are and the rules for migration within the limits established by international law. He said it is incorrect to say that the country has recently changed its citizenship policy to discriminate retroactively against Haitians. He added that on several occasions the Supreme Court of Justice has ruled on the issue of the children of illegal immigrants, regardless of their origin, which confirms that if the children are born to parents who are legally in transit, they are automatically excluded from obtaining Dominican nationality, and the children of anyone who cannot justify their legal entry or stay in the country cannot benefit from the greater right of citizenship, he explained. He stressed this is not an issue of leaving the immigrants without a country, as Art. 11 of the Haitian Constitution establishes that everyone born to a Haitian father or mother will have Haitian nationality at birth.
www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/stripping-dominicans-of-haitian-descent-of-their-citizenship-is-unjust/article2282499/ (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/stripping-dominicans-of-haitian-descent-of-their-citizenship-is-unjust/article2282499/)
www.noticiassin.com/2012/01/chancilleria-respondio-a-medio-canadiense-que-cuestiona-relacion-entre-rd-y-haiti/ (http://www.noticiassin.com/2012/01/chancilleria-respondio-a-medio-canadiense-que-cuestiona-relacion-entre-rd-y-haiti/)
The Dominican Ambassador in Washington, Anibal de Castro has also replied to an article in The Economist that stated the Dominican Republic had changed its laws.
www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2011/12/dominican-haitian-relations (http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2011/12/dominican-haitian-relations)
Anibal de Castro's response: http://m.economist.com/newsbook-21542152.php
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)