IOM supports the efforts of the Dominican Republic in diaspora integration and crisis management

 
Otro
7 August, 2019

 

Santo Domingo. The National Migration Institute and the Center of Emergency Operations of the Dominican Republic are currently working to create an Inter-Institutional Contingency Plan for Massive Migration Flows, with technical and financial support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The objective of the plan is to make an effective coordination tool available to all organizations that handle border-related issues. This will enable them to respond efficiently to any humanitarian crisis on Dominican borders, whatever its origin.

IOM is supporting various rounds of coordination meetings for governmental and non-governmental institutions, at the national level as well as in the five border provinces (Pedernales, Independencia, Elías Piña, Dajabón, and Montecristi). Information is being collected on current resources, state of maintenance, and action procedures in cases of border crisis.

“The importance of this plan comes from various aspects: first of all, it is going to give the country a risk management tool that we did not have previously; furthermore, it will allow us to improve inter-agency cooperation between the institutions that address migration issues; and finally, we are going to optimize resource usage and improve our response capacity in terms of addressing migration flows in border provinces,” highlighted Carlos Paulino Cárdenas, subdirector of the Center of Emergency Operations.

Meanwhile, the country is pursuing new lines of action with its diaspora, and in this context, it held the “1st Workshop on the Integration of the Dominican Diaspora into Local Development Processes in the Dominican Republic” on July 4.

This event analyzed how to re-think the understanding of the remittances sent to the country by Dominicans living abroad–over 8,000 million dollars each year–as well as how to evaluate the enormous contribution these people make to the territorial development of the country. 

During the event, IOM presented a proposal to create an International Guarantee Fund (called FIG DOMEX) which would support saving and access to credit in the destination country for investment in the country of origin.

Ways the country can assist its citizens abroad were also analyzed. “The idea is to run a diagnostic of the problems facing Dominicans abroad, to identify join actions to solve them, and to create Overseas Development Councils (CDU) as institutional bodies that serve as permanent links with the diaspora to involve them in the planning and implementation of public policies in national territory,” explained chancellor Miguel Vargas.

These efforts are part of the Regional Migration Program: Mesoamerica-The Caribbean, which operates with support from the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) of the Department of State of the United States.