Upon expiration of the National Regularization Plan for undocumented migrants and the end of the Dominican Republic’s official moratorium on deportations on June 17, 2015, tens of thousands of denationalized Dominicans and hundreds of thousands of migrants will be left unprotected from the discriminatory migration policies of the Dominican Republic. Individuals arbitrarily deprived of their Dominican nationality by the 2013 Constitutional Court ruling (TC-168-13) in violation of international law are particularly at risk of illegal expulsion and being denied access to basic services.
The government must immediately implement safeguards to protect these individuals, many of whom are now stateless, from being subjected to deportation proceedings, and fully restore their Dominican nationality. The Dominican government must also ensure that hundreds of thousands of migrants unable to register under the National Regularization Plan have a chance to obtain documentation before being subjected to deportation.
The attached briefing paper prepared by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights provides crucial background to the current crisis and provides key policy recommendations to the government of the Dominican Republic as well as to the international community. Versions are available in English and Spanish.