Caribbean News
Dominican Republic gives statement rebuffing report saying hundreds of children were deported without parents
By Deandrea Hamilton
Editor
#DominicanRepublic, November 23, 2022 – A UNICEF report to CNN is being rebuffed by the government of the Dominican Republic, after it exposed that hundreds of children were expelled from the country, mainly to Haiti without due consideration and without parents.
It was labelled in the report as a sweeping government push to remove undocumented migrants from the DR, where the United Nations Children’s Agency informed they had some 1,800 unaccompanied children in their care.
The children were delivered, says the November 20 report by Dominican immigration authorities; it’s been happening since the start of the year.
But the General Directorate of Migration of the Dominican Republic affirmed in a government statement
“At all times and in compliance with the laws of the Dominican Republic and international treaties, all deportations are carried out in total and absolute respect for the dignity of people and their human rights,” said Venancio Alcántara, general director of Migration, emphasizing that “there are specific procedures when there are minors involved in the process. At all times the minors are with their parents and, when they have not been located, the minors are referred directly to the National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI) which is in charge of their care”.
Government in the DR said the clarification from the director general of migration was given after the international news channel CNN stated that “the Dominican Republic this year expelled hundreds of children to Haiti without their families.”
The UNICEF maintains that many of the children arrive without identification and are shipped into Haiti with adults; the child protection arm of the UN questioning how Dominican authorities were able to ascertain the nationality of the children given they lacked the documents.