OBMICA Weighs the New Migration Measures Adopted by the Dominican Government

Since last September, the Dominican government has announced a series of restrictive measures that make the situation more difficult for migrants from Haiti, particularly those who do not have regular status or who, having applied to the National Plan for the Regularization of Foreigners, are now awaiting information about its continuity and have no available mechanism to renew the documentation that proves their status.

In such a sensitive context, after a meeting of the National Migration Council at the end of September, a statement was issued announcing a hardening of deportation policy toward Haiti and reporting a resolution, not yet officially published, that limits access to gyneco-obstetric health services for pregnant foreign women. From now on, beginning with the sixth month of pregnancy, only those who possess international health insurance will be allowed entry into the country, and that insurance will be required in order to be treated in the public system.

At a second moment, at the beginning of November, new measures became known, this time involving the suspension of student visas for Haitian nationals, linking to national-security concerns the operational problems involved in the granting and verification of permits issued to study in the country, mostly at university level. This affects an important community of young professionals pursuing higher education in local universities. Many voices, including some within President Luis Abinader's own administration, have questioned the appropriateness of this drastic decision. The Association of Haitian Students, in statements to Diario Libre, asked Abinader to reconsider the State's decision not to renew visas automatically, clarifying that students do not represent a threat to the country.

On Wednesday night, November 3, the Ministry of Interior and Police announced four other provisions to guarantee the "control of the movement of persons entering and leaving the country," namely:

• An audit of the National Plan for the Regularization of Foreigners (PNRE).
• The opening of 38 migration offices throughout the national territory.
• A new approach with productive sectors regarding how the hiring of foreign workers is carried out.
• The limitation of access to health services for migrants with irregular status, who would only be provided emergency care in the public-health system.

In addition, the National Migration Council declared itself to be in permanent session.

At OBMICA, we have analyzed these provisions carefully, and they do not express a coherent line of action. It is extemporaneous to speak of an audit of the National Regularization Plan: seven years have already passed since its implementation began, and any error should have been detected much earlier. The PNRE is indefinitely stalled. We understand that it is deeply problematic to attempt to undo a process in which migrants applied in good faith, invested time and resources, and were regularized. Today this group, which according to state figures amounts to around 220,000 people, finds itself in a much more vulnerable situation, without knowing whether it still has the status previously granted after exhausting the application, approval, and delivery process for migration documents.

We welcome the idea of opening migration offices throughout the country, which could help speed up services intended for migrants in order to guarantee their regularization, a process already being carried out in the border zone. In the same way, we value a new approach to migration in productive sectors, trying to see how to solve the status problem of migrant labor, an action very much in line with what was set out in the 2010-2030 National Development Strategy to establish quotas in different sectors of work for migrant labor and which should move in the direction of guaranteeing workers' rights.

Closing off access to public-health services for migrants with irregular status raises major difficulties for multiple reasons: first of all, everything related to the guarantees of the universal right to health, enshrined in the Constitution and in international agreements to which the country is a signatory. This has already drawn rejection from activists and from the Dominican Medical Association itself, because it would be calling on health-service providers to violate their social commitment and work ethic, while hospitals, whose mission is to guarantee the health of everyone, are turned into spaces of discrimination based on documentary and migration status.

Limiting health services to migrants is counterproductive in this context of health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, and with good judgment, the Dominican government had determined that all persons residing in the national territory would be included in prevention and care programs as part of the strategy to contain the virus. It is important to determine whether these new measures would also exclude people with irregular migration status from the successful National Vaccination Program, which would be a setback that puts the health of everyone living in the national territory at risk.

Migrant women doubly affected

Perhaps the most worrying aspect is the gender approach: the measures place even more pressure on foreign mothers and pregnant women and fail to recognize their specific needs. If women are reluctant to receive prenatal checkups out of fear of being deported, we could be helping to increase maternal mortality, which as we know in 2021 is moving backward compared with figures for the same period last year. This is deeply troubling and adds to the burden carried by women, upon whom the economic challenges and the responsibility of care and health attention for the whole family often fall.

Organizations such as OBMICA, which advocate for the fulfillment of migrants' rights, note the additional challenges arising from the situation of complete uncertainty in Haiti, making the announced measures difficult to understand, especially amid interstate tensions that should be addressed through diplomatic channels and the binational mechanisms created for that purpose - for example, the Dominican-Haitian Bilateral Mixed Commission.

The increase in deportations runs counter to recommendations issued by international organizations, human-rights bodies, and UN-system organizations, which at the end of September called on all states to reconsider deportations of Haitian persons to Haiti in light of the situation the neighboring nation is experiencing.

What is Haiti's situation?

Political instability was aggravated by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise last July, and the country has suffered an earthquake followed very closely by a tropical storm of terrible dimensions. It is also currently affected by the growing number of deportations from the United States this year - nearly 10,000 Haitians have been deported in the last four months - and by the siege of armed groups extorting citizens through kidnappings.

We understand that, given the complex political, social, and economic scenario Haiti is going through, it is not appropriate to carry out these rushed deportations. What is relevant is for states to control migration at the point of entry, which means creating enough channels so that people can regularize their status and the contributions migrants make to society can be made visible on equal terms with other workers.

At this moment, when there are so many tensions in Haiti, what is needed are cordial relations and the use of diplomatic channels to work on any issue, whether commercial, student, or labor migration. We urge the progressive sectors of both nations, human-rights defenders, citizen groups, the political class, intellectuals, and academics to promote understanding through appropriate channels, so that migration-control and security measures serve to strengthen ties and work on common objectives, in keeping with this very challenging moment in which we must commit to a collective recovery, contribute to proper migration management, the rights and services offered to migrants, and to Haiti's finding the path to stability as soon as possible.

You may consult the statements made by our director, Bridget Wooding, to journalist Graciela Cuevas, published in Diario Libre on Friday, November 5, 2021, in the report "Parties join the Government in search of actions to face the crisis in Haiti."