Dominican Defense Minister Rubén Darío Paulino Sem announced that 641 soldiers had been sent to reinforce the Dominican border to prevent the illegal and massive entry of Haitians into Dominican territory "291 soldiers were sent in reinforcement in Dajabón, 150 in Elías Piña, 100 in Jimaní and 100 in Pedernales".

He said the reinforcements have yielded results, indicating that it has helped to triple the number of undocumented Haitian returnees trying to enter Dominican territory illegally every day without mentioning numbers. However, knowing that the average of Haitians returned to the border varies from 800 to 1,000 per day since the beginning of 2018 one can estimate that the attempts of our compatriots have more than doubled in recent days ...

It should be remembered that before Christmas, as every year many legal and illegal Haitians have crossed the border to spend the holidays with family and are now trying to return to the Dominican Republic, adding to the steady flow of illegal migrants, which could explain this significant increase in attempts at illegal entry of our compatriots at the border.

The Minister's statements come after Admiral Sigfrido Pared Pérez, Director of the Department of National Investigations (DNI), called on Dominican politicians to consider the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti as a key element for national security. Admiral Pérez recalled that it was essential that the border strip be endowed with the resources necessary for its development, deploring the fact that the Dominican populations living in the border area were forced to migrate to the eastern part of the island to seek better living conditions, which allows Haitian immigrants, who also seek to improve their living conditions to occupy these Dominican areas, some of which have a population of agricultural workers at 90% Haitian...

At the same time, for the first 20 days of January 2018, the Dominican migration services expelled to Haiti more than 5,000 Haitians in irregular migration situations, arrested in different provinces, as part of regular control operations.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23206-haiti-flash-in-2017-more-than-110-000-haitians-expelled-or-turned-back-from-dr.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23195-icihaiti-flash-3-200-haitians-deported-to-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23179-haiti-flash-2-000-haitians-repatriated-from-the-dominican-republic-in-3-days.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23167-icihaiti-flash-376-haitians-arrested-at-the-border-in-less-than-24-hours.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23139-haiti-flash-the-dominican-soldiers-deploy-the-great-means-at-the-border.html

SL/ HaitiLibre