SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CMC) — Thousands of foreigners, including Haitians are facing deportation as the deadline for them to legalise their immigration status is scheduled to expire on July 17.
Tens of thousands of Haitians, and others, are registered under the National Plan to Regularize Foreigners (PNRE) who have been living undocumented in the country.
The PNRE is a special provision to grant identity documents and residence permits to foreign nationals who have not been living legally in the country.
Of the 238,000 Haitian foreigners who opted to regularisation, in the last deadline issued on 2015, the card of 143,000 expires July 17.
However, only 53,000 Haitians registered for the PNRE were registered with the Central Electoral Board (JCE), but of those, only 15,000 have been identified by the electoral board.
In May, the Dominican Directorate General for Migration (DGM) reported that citizens from 12 countries were repatriated to their country of origin.
According to the agency, the repatriated foreigners, who were living here illegally, came mainly from Haiti but also from Armenia, Canada, China, Colombia, Spain, Greece, India, Italy, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.
