Investigative reporter German Marte of Hoy newspaper reports that there is a million-peso business being conducted at a supposed “consulate” operating in the San Carlos section of Santo Domingo. According to the reporter, hundreds of people arrive every weekend at the employment agency, where they pay RD$3,100 to apply for jobs in Europe. If employment is found, another RD$90,000 is owed to the “agency.” Because of the number of people who turn up, a team of four military personnel are stationed at the entrance, including one officer. Besides keeping order, the military and other persons dressed in civilian attire offer information to the job seekers. Neighbors in the vicinity of what they call “the consulate” say the place receives as many as 1,000 people on Sundays, and it is estimated the business produces around RD$3 million every week. There are no signs, however, to indicate the presence of the agency, whose offices are found on the fifth floor of building #30 on Mexico Avenue, near Jose Reyes Street. A dark staircase leads to the offices and from dawn on Sundays hundreds of people arrive in minibuses looking for work in Europe. In addition to the RD$3,100 payment for the consultation, applicants must present their passports, a full birth certificate and a copy of their “cedula.” The entrance is jammed with people asking questions of “coordinators” who check documents and try to give information. The owner of the business identified herself as psychologist Ruth Corcino, and said the name of her business was Ruth Corcino Employment Agency. She gives those people who come to her office a talk about the work that is being offered and makes it clear that she is not guaranteeing a job for anyone. Just to hear Corcino’s discourse the people must ante up RD$1,500 as part of the RD$3,100 that is paid to the agency for the paperwork and no one goes up to the fifth floor without paying. In order to gain access, a person must speak to a lieutenant and a corporal first, and they communicate with the office by radio and cell phone. The Hoy reporter was not allowed to bring his tape recorder nor his cameras and the military asked photographer Napoleon Marte not to take pictures of the people or the site. At the interview, Corcino declared, without being asked, that her agency was legal and had 23 promoters working all across the country to recruit prospects. Although she said her business was legitimate, she could not remember which law gave her the right to operate. Corcino said that each person that gets a job in Europe signs a contract, but she could not remember the name of the notary public who registers the contracts. Hoy reporters interviewed 20 people waiting to go upstairs, people hailing from Montecristi, Esperanza, Cotui, Bonao, Santiago, and Villa Vasquez. It was whispered that people from Santo Domingo are not allowed to visit the offices at all. Corcino said that her agency has been doing business since 1991, but that it was only registered in “1999 or 2000, or around there.”