SENIOR DOMINICAN OFFICIALS IMPLICATED IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANTO DOMINGO 000733

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DEPT FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, WHA/CCA, CA, INL, DRL, G-TIP,

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/30/2027
TAGS: CVIS PGOV PHUM SMIG KCOR KCRM CH DR HA HK
SUBJECT: SENIOR DOMINICAN OFFICIALS IMPLICATED IN
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS AND ALIEN SMUGGLING

Classified By: Michael Meigs, Economic & Political Counselor. Reason:
1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: High-level officials in the Dominican
Ministries of Foreign Relations and Migration use their
positions to facilitate human trafficking and alien smuggling
schemes, according to media reports, DHS investigations and
Embassy contacts. Those implicated include the Assistant
Secretary of Consular Affairs in the Secretariat of Foreign

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Relations and the Director and Assistant Director of the
Directorate of Migration. The smuggled aliens, particularly
Chinese and Cuban nationals, use the Dominican Republic as a
staging ground in attempts to migrate illegally to the United
States. END SUMMARY.



2. (SBU) Growing numbers of Cuban and Chinese nationals are
using the Dominican Republic as a staging ground in attempts
to reach U.S. territory. The Embassy has received credible
allegations that high-level officials in the Dominican
Foreign Ministry and Directorate of Migration are
facilitating those journeys by knowingly authorizing the
entry into Dominican territory of intending U.S. migrants,
sometimes in violation of Dominican law.


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CUBAN MIGRATION VIA HISPANIOLA
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3. (U) The Dominican Republic is located just 70 miles from
the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. The two islands are
separated by the Mona Passage in the Caribbean. Dominicans
have long taken advantage of their country's proximity to
Puerto Rico by operating clandestine illegal migration trips
using small boats, or "yolas," to reach the western shore of
Puerto Rico.


4. (U) In recent years, growing numbers of Cubans have been
joining Dominicans in these dangerous voyages. In these
attempts, Cubans have an advantage not enjoyed by Dominican
migrants -- they need not travel the entire distance to
Puerto Rico. Under the "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, Cubans
who reach U.S. territory are permitted to claim asylum and
remain, while those apprehended at sea may be returned. The
island of Mona, a nature reserve that is U.S. territory, lies
approximately halfway between the Dominican Republic and
Puerto Rico. Cubans need only set foot on the island in order
to claim asylum and be given permission to remain in the
United States.


5. (SBU) In FY2001, no more than five Cubans reached Mona
island, according to DHS data. However, the number of Cubans
attempting the journey has exploded since then, to 318 in
FY2004 and 752 in FY2006. The U.S. Coast Guard has
apprehended 320 Cubans at sea in the Mona Passage over the
first five months of FY2007.


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CHINESE MIGRATION VIA HISPANIOLA
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6. (C) The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reports that
Chinese mafias operating in Puerto Rico and the Dominican
Republic arrange the entry of large numbers of Chinese
nationals into Dominican territory. Those Chinese nationals
are generally held in a form of indentured servitude in
Chinese-owned Dominican businesses while they repay their
travel debts. Work conditions can be exploitative. According
to DHS, the migrants' families in China are essentially held
hostage in order to ensure repayment.


7. (C) Once their debts are paid off, DHS reports, the
migrants are either smuggled to U.S. territory via air or as
stowaways on board merchant vessels, or are given
transportation to Central America, where they attempt to make
the crossing to the United States via land. Due to the level
of risk involved in the journey, Chinese nationals do not
generally attempt to cross the Mona Passage via yola.



8. (C) One Embassy contact and business owner in the local
Chinese community confirmed the operation of multiple Chinese
smuggling outfits throughout the Dominican territory. He
stated that many migrants arrive in the Dominican Republic
and secure local jobs, all the while awaiting the opportunity
to obtain passage to the United States. He says that although
many of these migrants are smuggled to the United States on
board charter flights (especially from Haiti) and merchant
vessels, others obtain passage through more legitimate means.
Specifically, the contact has the impression that the
Embassy's consular section had grown more lenient toward
Chinese visa applicants, and that many were able to obtain
valid nonimmigrant and immigrant visas through fraudulent
documentation or sham marriages.


9. (C) DHS is conducting several ongoing investigations into
Chinese trafficking organizations here in the Dominican
Republic.


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HOW THEY ENTER THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
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10. (SBU) Most Chinese and Cuban nationals tend to enter
Dominican territory via air using Dominican travel visas
issued abroad. Few of the travelers appear to qualify for
those visas. Likewise, few return to their countries of
origin.

-- The Role of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations:


11. (U) Investigative reporting published this week by
newspaper Clave Digital revealed that the Secretariat of
Foreign Relations has issued 2,948 30-day travel visas to
Chinese nationals over the past two years. According to
documents obtained by that newspaper, only 432 of those
Chinese nationals have actually returned to their country of
origin. The remaining 2,516 travelers, according to the
newspaper, either remained illegally in the Dominican
Republic or "used Dominican territory as a bridge" to reach
the United States.


12. (C) That story stated that most of the visas in question
were issued at Dominican consulates in France, Spain, Canada,
Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela. Only a minority of the visas
were issued at Hong Kong, according to the report. However,
the vast majority of such cases that Embassy sources have
processed involve visas issued at the Dominican consulate in
Hong Kong. According to Embassy contacts in the Chinese
community, Dominican consulates overseas, especially in Hong
Kong, sell Dominican visas and passports to the highest
bidders. Econoff met one Chinese national who freely admitted
that he purchased a Dominican passport in Hong Kong because
"it made traveling easier."


13. (U) However, although the consulates overseas were
responsible for printing and issuing the visas in question,
the Clave report states that the applications for those visas
were made directly through the Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Consular Affairs in the Foreign Ministry,

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Rosario Graciano.


14. (C) According to Embassy contacts and the Clave story,
many of the Chinese visitors are given "investor" or
"businessman" visas, even though they clearly do not qualify
for these classifications. Often, the visitors are the
subjects of petitions by the owners of Chinese fast-food
restaurants or short-term hotels in the Dominican Republic --
often the same employers who intend to exploit the
petitioners' labor when they arrive.


15. (C) The Clave Report was not the first to accuse
Assistant Secretary Graciano of facilitating the issuance of
visas to intending Cuban and Chinese migrants. During a
farewell call on the Ambassador, in February the outgoing
director of the local office of the International
Organization for Migration (IOM),Fanny Polania (PROTECT),
denounced a procedure facilitating the entry of Cubans that

was remarkably similar to the one outlined in the Clave
story. Ms. Polania stated that Rosario Graciano was directly
involved in authorizing Dominican consulates to issue visas
to Cuban nationals who did not qualify for those visas.
Polania said Assistant Secretary Graciano "personally
demanded my head on multiple occasions" because she was
concerned that the IOM representative posed a threat to her
operations.


16. (C) Polania also stated that Ms. Graciano's office
contacted the Dominican military every time Cuban migrants
were interdicted at sea and repatriated to the Dominican
Republic. According to Polania, during those conversations
the military is instructed to release, without charge or
deportation hearings, all of the Cuban migrants who hold
valid Dominican visas. Of course, this facilitates their
ability to continue trying to cross the passage, and the U.S.
Coast Guard confirms that they often see repeat travelers.


-- The Role of the Directorate of Migration


17. (U) Last week a news story published in Dominican
afternoon tabloid El Nacional stated that U.S. authorities,
in conjunction with Dominican agencies, were working to
dismantle a network of Chinese traffickers. According to that
article, the traffickers smuggled Chinese nationals into
Dominican territory from Hong Kong and France using permits
issued by the Directorate of Migration. From the Dominican
Republic, the smuggled aliens were sent to Panama and Mexico,
where they crossed into U.S. territory via land.


18. (C) The information published in that story was
remarkably similar to that provided by DHS, and it
immediately provoked a reaction from Dominican authorities.
On the day the story was published, Migration Director Carlos
Amarante Baret went public, blaming the entry of Chinese
nationals on the Foreign Ministry. "(The Directorate of)
Migration only facilitates the entry of those travelers who
are authorized by Foreign Ministry," Amarante said. Assistant
Secretary for Consular Affairs Rosario Graciano also reacted

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swiftly by inviting Acting Consul General Mike Schimmel to
lunch, inquiring what he knew about the investigation.


19. (C) Amarante has a point -- that the visas in question
were issued by the MFA Office of Consular Affairs, rather
than by his agency. But Amarante's agency plays a role in the
entry of Chinese nationals, too. According both to the Clave
report and to DHS investigators, immigration inspectors at
the airports are instructed to provide "VIP courtesies" to
all Chinese nationals who enter the country. Such courtesies
are not extended to travelers of any other nationalities.
According to the Clave Report, the Directorate of Migration
also issues special "verifications" to airlines that
transport Chinese nationals in order to ensure that the
travelers are given transportation. Again, such services are
reportedly not provided to travelers of any other
nationalities. DHS says that these services are provided in
order to ensure the transit and entry of travelers who
clearly lack the basic qualifications for the visas they have
been issued.


20. (U) Drafted by Alexander T. Bryan.


21. (U) This report and extensive other material can be
consulted on our SIPRNET site,
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/
HERTELL