The high court has issued a temporary injunction stopping the deportation of illegal Haitians from Dominica for 40 hours. The police arrested 38 undocumented Haitians who entered the country illegally and escorted them to the Charles Douglas Airport for deportation on August 12, but attorney-at-law Wayne Norde petitioned the high court and obtained a temporary stay for the immigrants.
“All I know is that we were issued with a court order prohibiting us from repatriating the Haitians and so the chartered aircraft remains at the airport pending the outcome of the matter,” an anonymous person said who was not authorizied to speak on the issue said.
The temporary order will remain valid for 48 hours within which the government will present its case before the court and Wayne Norde, representing the illegal immigrants, will also prove his case.
The National Security Minister, Rayburn Blackmoore, and Police Chief Daniel Carbon, as well as PM Roosevelt Skerrit among other Dominican leaders have expressed serious concerns about how Haitians and people from other nationalities enter and leave Dominica through the backdoor without authorization and proper documentations.
The prime minister said he has scheduled a meeting with the Haitian community on the island to help with stopping the influx of illegal Haitians to Dominica, and that he has written to France to curb the illegal movement of people to Dominica through unauthorized entry points. He said this would help prevent the accidental importation of COVID-19 cases to the country.
“I intend to meet sometime this week with the respectable Haitian nationals in Dominica so they can do what they have to do to speak to the Haitians so we have to take this matter under full control,” Skerrit said. “I have also directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to write to the French authorities so that they too can do more to control the French waters and assist us in that regard so that people can’t lose lives in the channel.”
The government made it clear that no groups or nationalities are being targeted or witch-hunted in the exercise, but that every steps must be taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus to the country through the backdoor and that security of the country must be upheld at all times.
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