While participating yesterday in a seminar on the Haitian border organized by the Armed Forces, historian Bernardo Vega said that one of the greatest failures of the Dominican military has been its participation in the trafficking of Haitians. As reported in El Caribe, the former DR ambassador to the US suggested the creation of a border patrol force such as exists along the US-Mexican border, to replace migration and armed forces units in the area. ?Pressures from the US have kept our military from profiting from drug trafficking, but nothing has stopped the trafficking of illegal Haitians from continuing to be a traditional business of our army,? said Vega.
Vega also criticized the lack of political will in the country to penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants from Haiti. He estimated that one of every 16 people living in the DR is either Haitian or of Haitian origin.
According to Vega, Haitian immigration has been an obstacle to the mechanization of sugar cane cutting, rice harvesting and construction. He said that as long as there are Haitians willing to work for less, real wages in the country would not increase nor would these industries be modernized
He also pointed out that despite the recent privatization of the State Sugar Council (CEA), today?s private owners continue to use the armed forces to secure low-cost Haitian labor. Despite the abundance of Haitians in the country, new Haitians need to be attracted for each harvest, because once a Haitian has worked outside the sugar mills, it is very unlikely that he would voluntarily take up that kind of work again.