Whether in construction projects, in agriculture or with street vendors, it is clear that Haitians occupy an increasingly important economic area in the Dominican Republic.

Domingo Rodriguez, United National Federation of Union of Construction Workers, said yesterday that the sector is in deep crisis because Haitians occupy more and more jobs both in the field of construction, that agricultural, which hurts workers Dominicans.

"The government must take more account of the interests of the Dominicans in terms of labor in the work being done across the country, the Dominicans are increasingly replaced by Haitians and is very dangerous" said Domingo Rodriguez

The Secretary General of the labor organization, requires that local authorities and government give priority to the Dominican labor in jobs that are built across the country. Rodriguez said that members of the union he heads "did not work, because the engineers in charge of the work, prefer to hire Haitians because they pay their daily wages much lower".

Similarly, Rodriguez has asked Gilberto Serulle, the mayor of Santiago, to hire Dominican workers in the works to be completed in the city where the Haitians are very many "We ask and require that the mayor uses labor Dominican in the works, because these men and women need to earn a living and support their families". Stating that the money of the Dominican workers is spent in the country when the money earned by Haitians is sent in Haiti.

Many tensions exist in the Dominican social fabric and this is not the first time that voices rise in the Dominican Republic on the increasingly presence of Haitians and its consequences. If "the political correctness", wants to make believe that the harmony between the two countries is without clouds and fraternal, the future is far from being also reassuring for nearly a million of our compatriots who, fleeing the poverty of Haiti seeking in Dominican Republic ways to survive better.

S/ HaitiLibre