No influx of Haitians in Dominica – PM assures

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has denounced suggestions that government placed Dominica’s immigration laws at risk after taking a decision to regularize Haitian nationals.

After the January 12 disaster in Haiti, government took a decision to give Haitian nationals living in Dominica a six-month grace period to regularize their stay.

That move has caused some fears amongst some persons who fear an influx of Haitians into the country. Callers on radio talk shows have also expressed concern that Haitians may enter here with criminal intentions as well.

However, Prime Minister Skerrit dispelled the notion that there is an influx of Haitians in the country, saying “there are laws and they have not been broken or repealed. There are laws and they will continue to be recognized. We took a decision to allow the Haitians to have peace of mind, especially those living here who were affected by the situation”.

Skerrit described the decision as a “humanitarian action”.

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27 Comments

  1. February 22, 2010

    It is so disguting sitting here reading these hateful blogs. I am most certain that some of you blogging at this very moment are leaving in someone else’s country.
    Many of you seem to forget in 1979 we were in a similar predicament.
    We were happy when others came to our aid. Lots of our people migrated then and did not return. Some became citizens of their adopted country, so why on earth are we so paranoid about the Haitians? some of us are no better than they are.

    The irony of all this is, people would sometimes leave Dominica and fly all the way
    to that same Haiti to do their neighbours harm. Now it’s right in their back yards i do not know what all the fuss is all about. When you needed them for your selfish
    purposes they were useful then? now that they need you they are useless?

    People continually complain about Haitians having business in Dominica. They should be ashame to even talk about that. Our people are too lazy and like everything readymade. All they want is to get rich quick by selling drugs and prostituting themselves.
    Time to stop blaming the Haitians for your laziness and all what’s wrong with Dominica and get a life. Dominicans you gave up on yourselves long before the Haitians arrived.

  2. February 20, 2010

    Let me warn you all who do not want to see Dominica advance that having Haitians in Dominica is a HUGE mistake. Haitians will bring nothing to Dominica but poverty. low life, thieves, unsanitary conditions, disrespectful people, voodoo and ugly kids. Where is the government going to get money to feed these Haitians and I will assure you that if Haitians are let in or not sent back to their country, Dominica will become raggedy.

  3. yes i
    February 20, 2010

    hatians are everywhere!! why in dominica, ???? there is enough haitian in dominica!! come on!! they even ruling papa!!!!!! they even openin bussness things dominicans cannot do!!! we have enough, go & play nice allu will c!! all wat other country dnt want send dem to d/ca then!! stupes!!! wait & c! we dominican have our word to say! ENOUGH!!

  4. Dissapointed!?#*"+i
    February 20, 2010

    My parents are farmers…and my Dad was literally kicked out of Portsmouth Market…by his fellow dominicians but they r giving haitians so much favors…I always say who laughs last…laughs the best… Daddy we R just waiting for the cookie to crumble…:)…We do not have a spirit if Fear but of love and a sound mind…

  5. Impacttheworld
    February 19, 2010

    I do no have any problem with foreigners making Dominica their home. We were involuntary tranplants. Remember slavery? However, our immigration laws must not be waived. Even in an emergency, we must make sure that we do not open the flood gates and allow every Tom, Dick,and Mary to enter without the preliminary standards and procedures set in our immigration laws.

    I travel extensively throughout the caribbean. I have also spent quite a bit of time in Martinique and Guadeloupe. In case many of you do not know, there is one common sentiment that is shared by many of the people in Martinique, Guadeloupe, VI, etc; and that is, they do not hold we Dominicans in high regard. Do you know why? Many of us go to these islands and commit many crimes. We do not abide by their laws, and we violate many of their basic regulations. I am not pulling these things out of the clouds…there is crime statistics to substantiate what I am saying.

    Here is my thought on Haitions coming to Dominica: We have to make certain that we enforce our laws in order to avoid what many Haitions have done to their own country. Let us start with agricultural degradation. 60% of land in Haiti has been deforested. Why? The majority of Haitions do not understand and care for preservation, ecology, and conservation. Many of them do not care for preserving for tomorrow. They consume without any thought of prosperity. Even after the World Health Organization and UNICEF rang the alarm many years ago regarding what was happening in Haiti; and sent experts to educate them about crop rotation, etc, the education and advice were competely ignored. If we do not enforce our conservation laws, the same thing may happen in Dominica. Do not get me wrong, there are Haitions that are enterprising and resourceful, and will make great law-abiding citizens. However, the majority of them do not fall in that category.

    Let us also keep in mind that Haiti has one of the highest crimes rates in the world. I think that if we are not diligent with our laws, many of these criminals will be filtered in with the hard-working, law-abiding Haitions.

    I am not here to bash Haitions. I am just saying, let us be prudent in our actions regarding the emigration of Haitions to Dominica.

  6. watever
    February 19, 2010

    U people talking like dominicans so bad!! We do not want more haitians here plain and simple! If we don’t send them back when their time done who going to build their country for them?? Chupes! U people need to take a walk in the market and see those haitians they f**** rude and disgusting they taking over! So is the chineese time will tell! U same people on here saying us dominicans doe good u will come back and cry. Watch and see, ignorant!

  7. Tryphena
    February 19, 2010

    Well, Well, Well! What have we come to?? Every country is assisting Haiti-God bless her- and some Dominicans are not happy? Wow….that is saddening. you know We as Dominicans should come better than that. Haiti was the first country to get freedom from slavery…Did we forget that? Did we forget slavery days? I’m hoping not because they fought for freedom so that we all could be free today.

    Like there is a saying in Dominica…when you friend’s beard is catching fire….wet yours! Dominica is mountainous!! Full of volcanoes! We would want to be assisted in time of trouble so…now is the time for us to have a heart. I applaud our PM for making such move. He has a heart and I believe he prays.

    Let us all be our brothers keeper. Haitians are human beings also. Come the beginning of March, St. Maarten will be having its Immigration raid! You know what? They do not concern themselves with those who are working, or whether you are from a the Caribbean..their concern is to get rid of the influx of ‘Illegals” I dislike that term.

    Some of us forget we have families overseas trying to help give us a better life and that is how we respond? magway sah!

    I think we can do much better than that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  8. belbagay
    February 19, 2010

    Thinking out of the box and this should serve as a wake up call to all the political parties the influx of hatians can also change the political dynamics in the country, and knowing how this labor party can only survive on the ignorance of the iliterates, we got ot be careful with that move.

  9. February 19, 2010

    This hatred Dominicans have for African people is phenomenal. Most of them with French surnames are Haitian descendants dating back to 1802; it is with this level of ignorance they pursue economic and intellectual refugee status in other countries while protesting the same for others seeking similar consideration in their country.

    Toute Too Bouche I appreciate your broad minded observations. Sustained poverty breeds the callousness and prejudice that puts every fair minded member of our society to shame.

  10. Citizen
    February 19, 2010

    Mr PM We do not need anymore Haitians here. There are already too many of them. We must think of the repercussions that might befall the country as a result. Six months is enough. We do not need more people to burden our already burdened health care system as well as putting more economic strain on our country. Six months then they should go back and build their nation that they can be proud of.

  11. CB CUZ
    February 19, 2010

    GOOD MR.PRIME MINISTER…..We have enough haitians already..see the USA did not accept any more because they have enough so i am happy dominica did the same …WE HAVE ENOUGH.

  12. Toot Too bouche
    February 19, 2010

    @ Chamer I was in Argentina in a conference for my line of work,staying at the Sheraton hotel ,on the last day of the conference I was in my room with a don’t disturb sign on the door.I heard a grumble and under breath mumble,but i recognize what was said in Patois.I threw my robe on and began running after the person,who by that time had walked away.my room mate didnot know what was going on she followed me also.When i caught up with the person(I’m thinking Lucian or D/can) I started talking with her,can you guess where she is from?DA.She told me she had gone to study in CUBA and after decided to go somewhere else and Argentina was it.Albeit I had a good time after my conference was over because she invited us to her home where she have already brought over three(3) family members.You want to know what she grumbled?She said”If is not for me helping my family,I would not wait on them people you know”.
    All of this is to say we DOMINICANS in every man country but want nobody in ours.Go on the two(2) online newspapers in Antigua and see what they saying about us in the comments section,don’t talk about St.Maarteen/St Martin and if you want to really hold your head and cuss check the Virgin Islands especially Rock City St.Thomas.It is said 3/4 of what happens there is done by Dumb Cans,that our new name.
    I will not join in the bashing of any one but we D/cans need to come better than that,remember they regard us as less than , any other OECS member, but if we help someone we will uplift ourselves,STOP THE HATING .

    Let me inform you also there are over 20,000 D/cans in Antigua,an island that is 108sq miles.What are we doing? some of them prefer to die than come back to DA. What does that say about us? Remember Montserrat? When they asked them to go home,they said they prefer to die in the volcano and three (3) died.What does that say about us? We are sitting on nine (9) active volcanoes,when we should be deep in prayer to ask GOD to spare our island we acting like we are better than other people.

    If your country is sooooo better what the France you doing in someone else country and still not behaving? Antigua say we are Non-Nationals and have overstayed our welcome.Montserrat say we are Non-Belongers get out.

  13. Thunder Horse
    February 19, 2010

    The people from Haiti are welcome in Dominica but, our immigration laws must remain. We just have to screen them properly and ensure that VOODOO practices are not done on our Natue Isle. We are God Fearing and should pray more than ever.

    People come to tyour country with soo many cultural practices and attitudes, we need to take note and monitor the numbers with extra screening.

  14. CHAMER
    February 19, 2010

    its amusing and amazing how some dominicans think and speak. i would those that speak foolishly to speak only for themself not for all dominicans because not all dominicans will agreee to send the hatians back. i am sure that almost every family in da has a member or more of there family overseas and illegaly most of them.but yet we talking . i have half of my family overseas some legaly. i am 39yrs and since i was in pre school dominicas population was 80something thousand and it has never increased but it keeps decreasing do u think its die dominicans dieing so?what diffrence is there between hatians and us ? none.some of u think u are more than them but u are not .they creat less problems than we do . i have lived in sm for a long time i can tell u what hatians do and what dominicns do. the hatians will live 20 of them in 1 house just to help eah other and are always looking to see that their own people get a job when its made avalable . we dont even want our friends to visit our homes to offten , when we get an opportunity to give our fellow da people a job we refuse because we say ourself that our people are ungreatful.while our young men come to sm pass and steal at people homes hold up tourist steal bikes and come da and play larg break and enter stores the hatians look for work to do. the dominicans have a worst attitude on the market in roseau than the hatians. lets stop beliving that the hatians are not humans they are and in te first place if it was not for the greed of some of u dominicans they would not be coming to da, but u take them by boat to sm gwada and other countrys so they come to da to try and get away so dont blam the gov for their dicision now.ask miami where he is? hope we realize that its population that builds a country. dominicans have been breaking our laws not hatians . as long as they respect the laws of da live them alone.

    living overseas with the rest of about 150000 dominicans thats away. heres a small view.
    guadeloupe 10 000- 15000 antigua 5000 – 12000 sm 4000 – 6000 dont talk about st croix st thomas tortola the us england and the others

  15. ALBERT P.
    February 19, 2010

    CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG….BUT NOT LONG AGO WHEN MR. CHARLES SAVARIN ANNOUNCED THAT HAITIANS WOULD BE GIVEN A SIX MONTH EXTENSION TO REGULARIZE THEIR STATUS…..THESE SAME PEOPLE WERE OUTRAGED THAT THE GOVERNMENT WAS SO INSENSITIVE……BECAUSE THEY FELT THAT MORE TIME SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN……..NOW THESE SAME PEOPLE ARE CRYING FOUL AND WANT TO SEND ALL HAITIANS IN DOMINICA BACK TO THEIR DEVASTATED NATION.

    WHAT REALLY IS THE INTENTION OF SOME OF THESE PEOPLE….SOMEONE TELL ME….PLEASE

  16. Bratt Thomas
    February 19, 2010

    WoW!. yall wanna keep people out of your country but yall get mad when you all get denied US visa’s. Then you all put up all this christian bull**** on here.

  17. Dominican lover
    February 19, 2010

    We have a wise PM, He will be blessed because he knowes what it means to be a true human, the bible says we have to help those in trouble. Dominicans the Haitians are our brothers and sisters. Remember we all have family members living in other people land.

  18. February 18, 2010

    God bless u mr. skerritt

  19. q
    February 18, 2010

    hmmmmmmmit is sad that our people here or Dominicans should be thinking like that, i thinks some DA people should go to the Airport or Sea port to see how many of our people are going out to find a better life for their self and family also u can find a Dominican almost anywhere in the world. the other thing i would like to say for those that were born before August 29th 1979 an saw what we woke up to the 30th to see what hurricane DAVID did to us and the amount of people that ran away and indeed got better life some people even ran away on sea on pipwi ….. so help if you can. and the world is none of us own

  20. Doctor
    February 18, 2010

    All thse comments before me must be haitians making those comments. If u walk on the streets of roseau and go anywhere around DA and ask ppl what they think about the haitians 98% if not 100% will tell you send them home. Our vendors are suffering in the markets due to haitians and their atitude. SEND THEM HOME. Send them back to HAITI

  21. ma beff
    February 18, 2010

    hey wait a minute…think for a while wat if the shoe was on the other foot,
    is it fair to say that ,antigua should not help us if we came into that position?
    our young men r out there killing ppl and doing so much crime wat if ppl
    start thinking ….oh no dominicans in our country would we like that

    DO UNTO OTHERS AS U WOULD HAVE THEM DO TO YOU

  22. maggiedumpling
    February 18, 2010

    I fail to believe that real Dominicans are engaging in what is tantamount to inhumane treatment of a fellow human being. Remember Dominicans are not the only people writing on this blog. Say it ain’t so.

    God bless.

  23. Steve Seman
    February 18, 2010

    I guess when our kind come we turn them away and the chinese are controlling the economics and we rent & sell everything and every where to them before even our own nationals.Soon Da will be like St.marteen meric Skerrit et Al.

  24. Mike Xavier
    February 18, 2010

    It is pure ignorance to think that we should not open the doors. Dominicans are failing to see the many benefits that the increased population will deliver. I am married to a sweet woman of Haitian descent for the last 10 years. It is amazing how similar the cultures are. Welcome them with open arms. Keep in mind we face this discrimination everywhere we go in the world, we are certainly better than that!

  25. miami
    February 18, 2010

    MR PM WE DO NOT WANT THESE HAITIANS FLOCKING INTO DOMINICA……SO PLEASE MR PM ENSURE THAT OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS ARE ENFORCED….

  26. Dominican
    February 18, 2010

    Why Dominican cannot take in Haitians? this whole thing is just sick, Dominican living at home you all have no idea how discrimation feels like. The same way that you all feeling about Haitians people coming into Dominca thats how the whites feel, why you blacks coming into there country. As a black woman living in Canada am experiancing racism everyday. Dominican these are your people come on man, these people are hard working people, let them come and work, do farming Dominica need people. they will develop the land Canada have over one hundread thousand of Haitians living in Quebec, and the doors are open to them. Those Dominican who are living in foreign and have so much chat, most of them will never come back to Dominica. Am not saying to just bring in Thousand people but , What happen to them people could have happen to Dominica or anywhere esle.

  27. ouboutou
    February 18, 2010

    Why is it that Dominicans can go all over the world,and i am sure there are more outside than there are inside legally and otherwise, but when it comes to other nationals settling in Dominica, it becomes an issue?

    Haiti is in a very bad state right now.. We are known for our hospitality and goodness, and loving people, let us give a helping hand in whichever way possible,,,,lets continue to help Haiti get back on their feet.

    God bless

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