Haiti - FLASH : In DR Haitians under the eye of drones
The Defense Minister of the Dominican Republic, Lieutenant-General Rubén Darío Paulino Sem emphasized the strict control exercised by the military authorities all along the border with Haiti.
He explained that to ensure this control in the border areas with Haiti, the Dominican authorities were assisted by a fleet of 43 drones equipped with the latest technology and night vision camera. Note that some of these drones can stay in the air 24 hours a day being powered by a wire bconnected to the ground, while others are autonomous and have a range of up to 100 km. All these drones retransmit the images of their camera to monitoring stations on the ground or for some by internet, at headquarters in Santo-Domingo. In addition to the drones, 3 helicopters provide aerial surveillance and soil patrols take care of the interventions, whether interceptions of illegal Haitians attempting to enter the Dominican territory illegally or seizures of contraband goods from Haiti (garlic, cigarettes, alcohol, narcotics, among others)
In addition, Minister Paulino Sem acknowledged that long-range surveillance drones equipped with the most advanced technologies were used in the provinces of Santiago de Los Caballeros, Santo Domingo and in the South, whose images are broadcast to monitoring centers. These drones reveal the places where there are illegal migrants (building sites, fields, places of residence, shops, markets etc...) but also fight against delinquency, banditry and contraband.
If the Dominican Republic makes more and more use of drones, it is not only for surveillance purposes. Thus in the field of health drones are used for deliveries of drugs or emergency blood between hospitals or to medical laboratories for analysis. Civil protection also uses it in the event of a disaster in addition to locating victims, organizing rescues or providing assistance in isolated areas that are difficult to access, with drones capable of carrying up to 40 kg of payload per trip.
