Dajabón, RD.
A line of people with their rolled-up pants and barefoot to protect their shoes cross a river: they are Haitians who enter the Dominican Republic every day to work, avoiding formal border crossings and the possibility of extortion.
Traders and farmers, domestic workers or construction workers arrive in the Dominican Republic in the morning and return to Haiti in the afternoon, a common dynamic in this 380 km porous boundary, which the Santo Domingo government promised to reinforce with a fence .
President Luis Abinader claims he wants to reduce illegal migration, human trafficking and smuggling and announced on February 27 that construction of the barrier will begin in the second half of 2021.
However, on the border with Dajabón, 225 km from Santo Domingo, there is skepticism between Haitians and Dominicans.
Residents of the area interviewed by AFP are accusing the military of charging a minimum of 1,000 pesos (USD $ 18) to pass Haitians, most of whom have no identification papers in that area and applying for visas is impossible.
Those who have a visa or border card usually travel on buses that go from one country to another and stop at customs. But it is a minority compared to the number of people crossing the massacre, a river named after the murder of some 30,000 Haitian migrants, between men, women and children, at the behest of the dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1937.
“Chinese wall”
Migration issues are a common point of friction in the historically difficult relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the poorest country in the hemisphere and with which it shares the island of Hispaniola.
“This doesn’t solve anything at all, because those who come illegally pay money [en los pasos oficiales] so they cross them, ” Willer Jean, a 33-year-old Haitian who works at a Dominican school, told AFP.
Iván Reina, a 30-year-old Dominican, agrees. “Even if we build a wall the size of the Great Wall of China, it won’t make sense as long as they keep attacking someone to cross the border.”
In the Dominican Republic, with a population of 10.5 million, there are approximately 500,000 Haitians, according to the National Survey of Immigrants. In addition, thousands cross the border every day, back and forth, most of them by paths.
The proposal for a fence comes after plans to regularize the undocumented, but also after massive deportations.
“It is a project that no government would have dared to prepare,” Migration Director Enrique García told AFP. “It is not a simple gate (…), it deals with technological issues such as facial recognition, fingerprints, infrared cameras.”
But like many in Dajabón, which borders the border between the two countries, the mayor, Santiago Riverón, has doubts.
“We have to build a wall, but a wall of businesses, industries” to help Haitians survive, he said. ‘When someone is at work, he doesn’t think he will emigrate elsewhere. If the Haitians are doing well, they will be fine.
Believe in the hospital?
Across the border bridge, an avalanche of Haitians rushes past to work in the Dajabón binational market, which operates in a kind of free zone Monday and Friday before reaching customs.
At 8:00 am, the army opens a white gate with rust stains and two shields of the Dominican Republic. People then begin to pass by with wheelbarrows, pots, boxes and bags to sell clothes – often received through donations – diapers, toiletries and other merchandise.
Most Haitians avoid speaking to the press, many out of fear. “Undocumented migrants are treated very badly … I am outraged to see how they deal with undocumented migrants,” said Jean.
Some at the border welcome the proposal for a wall.
“They say they are going to build a wall. May God want it to be built,” said 43-year-old Dominican Carlos Mateo. “The Dominican Republic was filled with Haitians.”
Elias Pie, a 38-year-old Haitian, supports the idea, believing it will improve security.
But María Altagracia Pérez, a 63-year-old Dominican, rejects her. “That fence costs so many millions and here they stopped building a hospital. People die for want of a doctor,” he complained.
Abinader and his Haitian counterpart, Jovenel Moise, signed an agreement in January that includes a commitment from the Dominican Republic to help build hospitals in the neighboring country with international funds and thus relieve health centers.
When night falls, the rust-white gate in Dajabón closes until the next day.