Migration Policy Observatory meets with President Abinader

SANTO DOMINGO. - The Executive Committee of the Migration Policy Observatory held its first meeting with President Luis Abinader to present the action plan the organization will implement, with the goal of following up on the 15 immigration control measures announced by the government in early April.

During the meeting, held in the presidential office meeting room at the National Palace, Miguel Franjul, director of Listín Diario and president of the Observatory's Executive Committee, presented to the President of the Republic the operational plans that the observatory created by Decree 215-25 will implement.

Together with Franjul were present  at the meeting Alliet Ortega Rabassa, acting rector of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC); Monsignor Diómedes Espinal, bishop of the Diocese of Mao-Monte Cristi; Juan Bancalari, president of the Dominican Republic Hotel and Tourism Association (Asonahores); César Dargam Espaillat, executive vice president of the National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP); Robinson Cuello Shanlate, member of the Duartiano Institute; Feliciano Lacen Custodio, executive director of the Dominican Council of Evangelical Unity (CODUE); Juan Mera, president of the Association for the Development of Santiago. Also present were Igor Bucarelly and Miguel Franjul Pérez.

Results of the meeting

During the meeting with Abinader, it was also agreed that the Executive Branch will designate a liaison to assist the observatory with its logistical needs and organizing meetings with ministers and officials from the areas related to the various measures.

Franjul stated that, pursuant to the provisions set forth in Decree 215-25, a network of civil society institutions will be organized to participate and collaborate with the observatory in monitoring the country's migration policies. He also announced that the observatory's website will be designed and launched to disseminate information about its work, including a section for receiving complaints from civil society.

The observatory's technical team, which will initially operate at INTEC headquarters, will monitor, capture, and compile new developments, data, and information of interest, as well as user inquiries from civil society.

The institution will be responsible for holding a national forum attended by representatives from the Executive Branch, civil society, and political parties, among others, to address the migration issue and find solutions to the problems of irregular Haitian labor migration, repatriation of illegal immigrants, border control, trade, trafficking of undocumented immigrants, health and education services for immigrants, and the status of civil registration.

Franjul informed President Abinader that working groups will be created for consultations and dialogue on the government's immigration policies; these will include representatives from all sectors of Dominican society.

President Abinader was accompanied at the meeting by the Director General of Migration, Vice Admiral Luis Rafael Lee Ballester.