SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — A cloud of fear and uncertainty has settled over the Dominican Republic in the two days since the government officially closed the doors to migrant workers trying to normalize their status.

Fears of a mass deportation of Haitian immigrants prompted human rights organizations and governments to issue statements and warnings likening the planned purge to ethnic cleansing. The nation, and international observers, braced for the worst.

But early signs seemed to indicate that no such heave is underway, at least not in public. The streets are largely quiet. Gone are the protests, the lines of migrants snaking around the Interior Ministry, the throngs of soldiers and police officers. The most noticeable difference was the relative absence of Haitians, hawking fruit and working at restaurants here in Santo Domingo, the capital.

For now, it seems, the country has spared its migrants, and itself, the devastation of mass deportations. Expulsions, certain to be reported by dozens of news media outlets and human rights groups, would have been a blow to the global esteem of the Dominican Republic.