President Leonel Fernández ordered the Ministry of Armed Forces to step up efforts to stop the influx of illegal Haitians to the Dominican Republic. Minister of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Manuel de Jesús Florentino, the director of the Department of Migration, Danilo Díaz met with the chiefs of the Air Force, the Navy and the National Army to coordinate the new efforts to patrol the frontier. The decision comes as a government reaction to a request from the Organization of American States that the Dominican Republic stop mass deportations of illegal Haitians. Influential local sectors criticized the little efforts on behalf of the Dominican government to control the influx of illegal Haitians. The border of the DR with Haiti, almost 300 kilometers long, is an open border, and it is almost impossible to impede Haitians that want to make the crossover to do so. There is a proposal to build an international highway, that would cross the DR North-South and would be fenced on both sides, in order to reduce the flux of Haitians. Japanese funding would be available to build the highway, which would cost US$400 million. The Japanese are interested in Haitian stability because they use DR-Haitian water routes. Ecologically-speaking this North-South connection would be much better than the proposed North-South route through San Juan de la Maguana. At the same time, free zone industries could be built in the area to provide employment to residents in the frontier zone, both Haitians and Dominicans. The North-South connection would also generate multiple business opportunities and thus job opportunities for the economically depressed frontier zone.
