The General Directorate of Migration revealed that, in the last year 2020, the agency repatriated 23,724 foreigners to their country, of which 23,664 corresponded to Haitian citizens living in the Dominican Republic, without any legal status.
The institution also indicated that another 7,147 citizens from different countries were prevented from entering the national territory last year, stating that it does not comply with the requirements of Law 285-04, which governs the national immigration system.
In its report, Migration states that many of the foreigners who were repatriated from the national territory last year engaged in various productive activities, without having the documents and permission to stay at the institution.
These include citizens from 19 countries, the vast majority of Haitians foreigners; also from Albania, Algeria, China, Grenada, Canada, Colombia, Brazil, Georgia, Cuba, Venezuela, the United States, Nigerian Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Spain and Bulgaria.
It is recalled that last year, the Dominican government kept the land and air borders closed from March to July, to stop the spread of Covid-19 coronavirus in the country.
During the nearly five months of closure of national borders and airports and international flights to and from the Dominican Republic were suspended. During this pandemic crisis, the deportations of Haitian citizens were held on humanitarian grounds.
Voluntary return
Migration statistics also show that last year, during the pandemic, about 217,668 foreigners returned voluntarily to their countries of origin, the highest percentage being Haitian citizens who moved to their country by land.
Others managed to travel to their home countries on humanitarian flights by Dominican authorities.
Meanwhile, the repatriated aliens were detained in raids carried out by immigration inspectors throughout the country.
In its annual statistical report, it indicated that all citizens, belonging to different nations, had been returned from the same airports where they arrived in the Dominican Republic, many of them from different countries in South America.
Late last year, the Directorate-General for Migration tightened immigration controls and raids in various provinces, while the socio-political crisis shook neighboring Haiti with cyclical anti-government protests demanding the resignation of the nation’s president.
During that period, dozens of Haitian citizens were arrested for not having residence documents in the Dominican Republic and were subsequently sent to their country.