Jorge Galván, a human rights activist in Santiago, Dominican Republic, said that despite military reinforcement and increased monitoring by NGOs from both Nations, the trafficking of Haitian children and adolescents has intensified along the border of the Province of Dajabón and are transported for the most part to Santiago, to carry out various activities.

According to Galván, when these minors are illegally transferred from Haiti, they are exposed to all kinds of abuse from the traffickers stressing that the problem is dramatic and that an urgent solution must be sought because more and more of them are arriving every day.

Many of these children and adolescents spend the night in public places or sleep in abandoned buildings and other unhealthy places. On the day they walk the streets with shoe polish boxes, others clean the windows of vehicles, still others devote themselves to begging, collecting bottles, plastics and other objects that people throw away and that they can resell, often on behalf of unscrupulous individuals.

Some, victims of mafias who operate in Haiti in collusion with Dominicans are exploited in domesticity, often abused or sold in prostitution networks.

A Dominican migration official from the North zone explained that there are international treaties which prohibit the expulsion of minor children and adolescents regardless of their nationality. He said these children can be looked after and accommodated at the National Council for Children and Adolescents (Conani) while they wait to be reunited with their parents, a process that can take a long time.

Haitian professor Jean Baptiste, former leader of Civil Protection in Cap Haitien, says that child trafficking to the Dominican Republic is serious.

The lawyer José Alberto Peña, Vice-President of the Coordinator of Popular Organizations of the South Zone of Santiago, indicated that with representatives of other entities, he saved 7 Haitian children (3 girls and 4 boys) who were residing in the poor area known as "Cañada del Diablo", which were exploited by their compatriots. The children were handed over to the Conani.

S/ HaitiLibre