PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
SOCIAL REINTEGRATION OF DEPORTED DOMINICANS
Gina María Lamarche Leonardo*I. INTRODUCTION
Every year, hundreds of Dominicans are arrested abroad for various crimes and sent as deportees to theDominican Republic by the immigration authorities of those nations. In the first seven months of 2020, a totalof 1,100 Dominican ex-convicts were deported from the United States. (Diógenes Tejada, 2020).1 They served
sentences for drug trafficking, murders, falsification of documents, fraud against the government, kidnapping,rape, gangs, driving while intoxicated, robbery, assault and several cases of intentionally setting home fires.
As of 2021, 1,428 ex-convicts were deported from different countries, the majority from the United States.
The two major grounds for deportation were illegal migration (671) and drugs (463). For gender, in the same
year, 117 (8%) were females and 1,311 (92%) males  (Reafael Castro, 2021).2
Upon arrival at Las Americas International Airport, the deportees are received by employees of theGeneral Directorate of Migration and the Specialized Corps on Airport and Civil Aviation Security (CESAC),
as well as by members of the airport security system and employees of the Ministry of Interior and Police.
From the terminal they are transported by buses owned by the Directorate General of Migration (DGM) to
their reception centre in Haina which has operated as a reception place for these cases since 2015.
From the Ministry of Interior and Police, once these deportees enter the country, they have access to theregistry and enter the identifications in a database. At the moment, the database is only managed forregistration and knowledge purposes, but the Ministry is interested in creating public policies that support
the deportees towards a healthy social reintegration.

II. JUSTIFICATIONThis work aims to study the issue of deportation from the moment of commission of the offence thatcauses it, to the reintegration of the individual as an entity that, far from being a social and economic burden
for the state, is incorporated in a productive way to the Dominican society. It is to be understood that areturnee who is not guaranteed respect for their human rights may represent a threat to the national
security system, and their exclusion is likely to increase delinquency and criminality in society. Likewise, wewill take into account the level of incidence in the issues of the assistance system and social protection,
discrimination as a mechanism of exclusion and citizen security.

III. DEPORTEES IN THE COUNTRY
To confront crime, society proposes the construction of more prisons and the deepening of the severityof punitive models. These plans are accompanied by the “zero tolerance” paradigm, which has a direct
impact on the criminalization of deportees and poverty. In the case of men, the lack of employment usuallybrings with it the deterioration of their strength due to the breakdown of the image as provider and*In charge at the Vice Ministry of Citizen Coexistence, Ministry of Interior and Police, Dominican Republic.
Diogenes Tejada. (July 2020). One thousand one hundred Dominicans repatriated from the United States so far in 2020. El
Nacional, p. 5.
2Rafael Castro (November 2021). Migration reports almost 1,500 deported Dominicans in 2021. Listin Diario, p. 8.
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protector of their family. The more exclusion from the workplace, the less human development and,
consequently, an increase in crime.
The Dominican Republic is one of the countries that has been disproportionately affected by the US Illegal
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act enacted in 1996 (EFEUSA, 2016).3 That law has had
an impact beyond its original intention to combat irregular immigration. The expansion of the list of crimes
or offences that now lead to the deportation of legal residents has resulted in mass deportations.
For deportees, returning to their country of origin represents a challenge. Forced return to their homecountry often feels like unjust displacement, particularly for those who have lived most of their lives in theUnited States. When a deportee arrives in the country, they are sometimes rejected due to the belief thatthey are associated with criminal acts. Before 2013, the registration and transfer system was counterproductive
and prevented the reintegration of deportees. Either through direct access to the list of deported persons, orthrough a non-criminal record certificate reflecting that the person had committed a crime in the UnitedStates, employers, banks, and credit institutions openly discriminated against deportees once their status wasdisclosed to them.
Similarly, the old requirement of periodic weekly reporting for the first six months after arrival in thecountry revictimized deportees who had committed no crime in Dominican territory. Despite this, there arecountless stories of deportees who, when returning to the Dominican Republic, do not find job offers after
searching for several months because employers somehow verify the deported status of the individual.

IV. REINSERTION PLAN
The Ministry of Interior and Police, attentive to the situation of national deportees, seeks to design anaccompaniment and reintegration programme to achieve the integration of deported Dominicans in a usefuland productive way to the family, work and society. The intention is to carry out a survey of information
through interviews with Dominicans with international migration experience and with a history of deportation,with the aim of making a quantitative analysis of the issue of deportees in the Dominican Republic, and basedon the analysis, developing a qualitative reasoning that allows the development of public policies related toeducation, employment, housing, security, among others. In the same way, it is intended to define and build
a social image of the returnee, which allows society in general to change the perception of this populationgroup, which although it is a minority category, has a special impact on the psychosociological aspect of theDominicans, especially on the topic related to the increase in crime and its possible link in the implementationof new forms of violence and criminality. Destigmatizing and channelling this population segment in its
proper dimension is of great value for the country, since it will constitute a contribution to the strengtheningof the national security system and would validate all the efforts of the State to reduce the levels of crime inthe country. At the same time, it would integrate a high number of Dominicans to the productive life of thecountry.

V. EXPECTED RESULTS
From the Ministry of the Interior and Police, we seek to achieve:
••
•
•
•
3

Diagnosis of the current situation of the deportee and the procedure to which he or she is subjectedfrom detention to deportation.
Raising of the current legislation on the matter and its impact on the process.
Identification of weaknesses and proposals for their strengthening.
Creation of adequate instruments that allow the Dominican State to capture the information necessary
for the development of national insertion policies for deportees.
Planning, execution and monitoring of a pilot programme for the rehabilitation of deportees in order

EFEUSA (2016). Illegal Immigration Reform Act remains without success two decades later. EFE Agency, 5.

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to reduce the level of leisure, during the process of reintegration into working life.
Follow-up programme with the accompaniment of relatives to receive and reintegrate the family tothe returnee, a person who is not the same person who left their home one day.
Proposals for governmental and non-governmental inter-institutional agreements to create articulation
mechanisms that guarantee the development, sustainability and sustainability of the Program.
Definition of the link between the deportee and the increase in violence and crime.
Impact on the issue of citizen security.
Decrease in discrimination to which they are subjected due to the weakness of the system and thesocial perception of its incidence in the increase in delinquency and criminality.

VI. CONCLUSION
In the end, understanding the growth experienced by the phenomenon of deportation in the country andthe need and relevance, not only of its study, but also of its inclusion in the national agenda, is important forthe design and implementation of specific policies to achieve the reintegration of these nationals.
It is necessary to design policies and programmes that guarantee prevention, care and support mechanisms
for returnees, so that upon their return to the country they find the opportunity to adequately insert
themselves into society, at least by creating the opportunity to re-educate themselves in order to obtain aworthy job, health, housing and contribute to the reduction of recidivism.

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