Dominican and Haitian civil society issues declaration on the Foreigners Regularization Plan

January 25, 2014 -- On January 24 and 25, 2014, a group of Dominican and Haitian civil society organizations met in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to participate in a binational workshop for reflection and exchange on Haitian migration to the Dominican Republic after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, within the framework of the NOREF report, as well as on the National Foreigners Regularization Plan No. 327-13 of November 29, 2013. The meeting, co-convened by OBMICA and GARR, resulted in a final declaration agreed upon by the organizations present, which we share below:

1. We welcome the initiative of the Dominican State to launch and manage, through Presidential Decree No. 327-13, a Regularization Plan for Foreigners in an irregular situation in the country, as required by Article 151 of the General Migration Law No. 285-04 of August 15, 2004. We understand that the Dominican Republic requires responsible migration policies and that this Plan can help build them.

2. We support a Regularization Plan that is fair, realistic, transparent, guarantees fundamental rights, and is directed exclusively at foreign persons.

3. We reject the confusion within that Plan of two distinct issues: the issue of the nationality of Dominicans affected by Judgment 168-13 issued by the Constitutional Court, and the issue of regularizing the status of foreign migrants in an irregular situation, the great majority of them Haitian.

4. Therefore, we reject the paragraph of Article 8 of the Plan, as well as Articles 28 and 29, through which Dominicans born in Dominican territory to foreign parents in an irregular migration situation are included in the Plan. We are in total disagreement with involving in this Plan those persons who cannot, under any pretext, be considered foreigners.

5. We urge the Dominican and Haitian States, each in what concerns them and through the appropriate means, to guarantee accessibility for the population subject to this Plan. The Dominican State must guarantee economic access, affordable costs, geographic access, adequate services available throughout the territory, and temporal access, realistic timeframes, so that migrants in an irregular situation who meet the Plan's requirements can effectively make use of it. The Haitian State, meanwhile, must reactivate without delay the program for granting identity documents to its nationals subject to the Plan, so that they can avail themselves of it by presenting the documentation required in Article 12 of the Plan.

6. Part of this accessibility must consist of an information campaign on the Plan in Spanish and Creole, including translation of the Plan into the two languages spoken by the Haitian people, French and Creole.

7. Finally, we express our total condemnation of Judgment 168-13 because it violates the fundamental rights of Dominicans of Haitian descent and of other foreign origins guaranteed by Dominican constitutions and international human rights law.
The civil society organizations of both countries present at the workshop commit themselves to strengthening their ties of cooperation and communication, establishing an operational mechanism to follow up on the decisions taken during that binational workshop. Finally, they reaffirm their commitment to work for the development of fraternity between both peoples.

In Port-au-Prince, January 25, 2014.

ORGANIZATIONS PRESENT:
1. Groupe d'Appui aux Rapatries et Refugies - GARR
2. Observatoire Haitien de la Justice - OHJ
3. Reseau Frontalier Jeannot Succes - RFJS
4. Observatorio de Migrantes del Caribe - OBMICA
5. GROUPE MEDIA ALTERNATIF
6. Movimiento De Mujeres Dominico Haitiana - MUDHA
7. Collectif Haitien pour les Migrations et le Developpement - COHAMID
8. FONDATION ZILE
9. Mouvement Socio-Culturel des Travailleurs Haitiens - MOSCTHA
10. Servicio Social de Iglesias Dominicanas - SSID
11. Service Jesuites des Migrants - SJM/HAITI
12. Plateforme des Organisations Haitiennes des Droits Humains - POHDH
13. CENTRO BONO
14. Sant Ekonomik pou Devlopman Edikasyon Popile - SEDEP
15. Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen - SOFA
16. Reseau National pour Defense des Droits Humains - RNDDH
17. Mesa Nacional por la Migracion y Refugio en Republica Dominicana - MENAMIRD
18. SANT PON AYITI
19. Defenseurs des Opprimes - DOP
20. MOSARRH
21. Mission Sociale des Eglises Haitiennes - MISSEH
22. Commission Nationale Justice et Paix - JILAP
23. WORLD VISION
24. DOMINICANOS POR DERECHO
25. American Jewish World Service - AJWS
26. Laboratoire de Recherche sur les Relations Haitiano-Dominicaines - LAREHDO
27. Centre de Recherche et de Formation Economique et Sociale pour le Developpement - CRESFED
28. Comite Memoire 1937
29. Centro Cultural Dominico Haitiano - CCDH
30. Religions pour la Paix