President Danilo Medina held a thirty-minute meeting with Haitian Ambassador Fritz Cineas at the Presidential Palace yesterday, Wednesday 9 January. Presidency Minister Gustavo Montalvo, Migration Director Jose Ricardo Taveras, Presidency Administrative Minister Jose Ramon Peralta, Presidential legal adviser Cesar Pina Toribio and Armed Forces Minister Admiral Sigfrido Pared Perez were also present to discuss the crisis at the Dajabon border crossing, where thousands of Haitians are trying to re-enter the country after the Christmas holidays.
Subsequently, in a separate meeting held last night, Wednesday 9 January the Dominican and Haitian authorities together with Father Regino Martinez, head of the NGO Frontier Solidarity, reached an agreement for the 1,080 Haitians who travelled back to Haiti for Christmas to enter the Dominican Republic, to settle the dispute.
Father Regino said that the Haitian government had promised to issue birth certificates and identification cards to more than 800 of the illegal Haitian workers and that the other 280 had expired visas that were easy to renew.
As well as Father Regino and authorities from both sides, representatives of the undocumented Haitians who have been waiting at the border since last Sunday, 6 January and the Head of the Specialized Border Security Corps (Cesfront), General Santo Domingo Clase Guerrero also attended the meeting.
The situation on the border had been turning increasingly tense and the Haitian National Police had to evacuate the staff from the Dominican consulate in the border town of Ouanaminthe (Juana Mendez) after protesters threatened to oust them using force. A source at the consulate said that the evacuation was a security measure.
Prior to this incident, Haitian police used tear gas and gunfire to disperse thousands of Haitians trying to enter the Dominican Republic from the border at the Masacre River.
General Guerrero Clase said that everything was under control on the Dominican side of the border but journalists from Listin Diario reported that the Army and Cesfront arrested dozens of Haitians who were trying to cross over into the Dominican Republic and saw other Haitians climbing through the woods in groups of three, four and five.
The president of the Dajabon Business Association, Abigail Bueno, said that the market there takes around RD$50 to 60 million each Monday and Friday and when it does not open it has a devastating affect on the town. Bueno went on to warn of the consequences if it did not open this Friday, 11 January.