CARICOM has pledged not to ease the pressure on the Dominican Republic in response to the country’s immigration crackdown.
But it will only be doing so through diplomatic channels, while allowing the United Nations to take the lead in attempting to resolve the matter that has left thousands of undocumented people of Haitian descent, who were born in the Dominican Republic, stateless.
The declaration was made over the weekend by chairman of the community, Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart who stated “We cannot condone behaviour that, in our view, enshrines barbarity into the constitutional practices of the Dominican Republic.”
The 15-member CARICOM grouping and the Dominican Republic comprise CARIFORUM, which signed an economic partnership agreement with the European Union in 2008. However, Stuart said this would not be hindrance to the region’s position on the issue.
