Haitian preachers slam Port-au-Prince, laud Dominicans

Santo Domingo.- Haitian preachers in the country on Thursday defended Dominican Republic’s program to legalize aliens, whose registration ended June 17, and denied that the Dominican government has deported their compatriots.

"That’s a lie, because Haitians are leaving for Haiti are doing it voluntarily, and those who failed to register in the plan don’t want to lose their belongings and leave before the deportations start," said pastor Raul Niquel.

He said the Dominican government is issuing documents to Haitian nationals who registered for the program, but those who didn’t couldn’t because Haiti hasn’t issued birth certificates or passports to its citizens residing in Dominican territory. "In recent months Immigration (agency) hasn’t deported any Haitian, now those that come illegal from Haitian when they reach the border posts are returned because they’re illegals."

"The Haitian government received substantial millions of dollars to help Haitians obtain their national papers, but it was negligent in that and they couldn’t get them" the pastor said.

Niquel said the Haitian diaspora hasn’t received any abuse by the State, and on the contrary thanked the Dominicans because in his view for the first time "we will have people from Haiti with legal documents so the employers can’t abuse them because they will defend their rights,”

Resume dialogue

Accompanied by several pastors, the preacher said the haiti-Dominican Repúblic talks should resume "to see if this can improve because we are two friendly countries and should maintain relations."