SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Reuters) - The Dominican Republic said Tuesday it would not deport thousands of undocumented Cuban aliens who entered the country before it reached a new immigration agreement with Cuba.
"We are regularizing the status of those Cubans, who number in the thousands. We will not deport them,'' Vice Chancellor Minou Tavarez told Reuters.
"We are calling on undocumented Cubans to contact the Director General of Migration to begin the process of regularizing their status,'' she said.
The government had been criticized by the local Cuban exile community for repatriating 23 illegal aliens to Havana in October, ending the previous practice of granting vists to Cubans to settle in the country.
Those sent back to Cuba had asked for political asylum. But Danilo Diaz, the Dominican director of migration, said it was a sovereign right of the goverment to deport all illegal aliens, including Cubans.
Citing the agreement with Cuba's government, Tavarez said the government would continue to deport Cubans who arrive illegally. She said most Cubans arriving in the Dominican Republic intended eventually to settle in the United States.
The shift in immigration policy came amid a strengthening of the Dominican Republic's relations with Cuba. The two Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations reached an accord this year under which they will open consulates in each other's capitals.
15:24 12-02-97