Caricom ups pressure on DR over ruling that strips citizenship from thousands

Caricom chairman Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, right, greets Haitian President Michel Martelly during a special meeting of Caricom at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, Port of Spain, yesterday

Caricom is suspending consideration of the Dominican Republic’s (DR)  request for membership of the community and reviewing ties with it in other fora over the Santo Domingo court ruling that strips citizenship from tens of thousands of persons mostly of Haitian descent.

The court ruling of September 23, 2013 has angered the region and Caricom – of which Haiti is a member – had been under severe pressure to take strong action against the Dominican Republic following an October statement which only condemned the ruling but took no action.

A meeting of the Caricom Bureau of Heads yesterday in Trinidad and Tobago delivered a