(Santo Domingo) The Dominican Republic firmly rejected on Sunday official American accusations denouncing an alleged “unequal treatment” based “on the color of the skin” of American travelers by its immigration services.
The Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it hopes that Washington will “withdraw the terms” of the “ambiguous communiqué”, released on Saturday by the United States Embassy.
“Travellers have reported being delayed, detained or questioned […] because of the color of their skin. Reports of unequal treatment of American citizens by Dominican authorities are an ongoing concern of the United States Embassy,” the US text reads.
A charge denied by the Dominican Republic.
“The U.S. government has provided no evidence, beyond anecdotal cases without independent verification, that there is a systematic pattern of violations of migrant rights ordered by Dominican authorities,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. .
“As everywhere else in the world, isolated cases can occur,” according to the ministry. “If reported to the competent authorities, (these isolated cases) would be investigated and duly punished,” added the same source.
The Dominican authorities specify that the text of the American embassy weakens the “excellent” bilateral relations between the two countries.
The Dominican government would never have imagined such serious insinuations against our country, whose population testifies “in its skin color” to great diversity, and even less from an ally who has been the subject of numerous accusations of xenophobic and racist treatment of migrants and certain sectors of its own population.
Excerpt from the press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic
Recalling that the United States deported more than 20,000 Haitians, Santo Domingo specifies: “Like any sovereign country that repatriates the foreign population in an irregular migratory situation, including the United States, the Dominican Republic was forced to deport a large number of Haitian migrants”.
The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Due to differences in living standards, thousands of Haitians attempt to migrate to the Dominican Republic. Santo Domingo has tightened its immigration policy vis-à-vis Haitians, including building a barbed wire curtain between the two countries to prevent infiltration.
Some put forward a figure of 3 million Haitian immigrants for a total population of 11 million. The official figure is 500,000.