2015News

Haitians still returning voluntarily

According to data from the Statistics Department of the Dominican Migration Department, 65,049 Haitian nationals who may lack proper documentation have voluntarily left the Dominican Republic between 18 June and 2 August 2015.

The largest number of individuals crossing the official border points was via Dajabon 50,676 (77%), followed by Elias Pina, 6,739 (10%), Jimani, 5,344 (7%), and Pedernales, 2,290 (6%).

In addition, 878 Haitian nationals returned to their country with the assistance of the Dominican Government (which offered free transport to the border for individuals and their possessions). The government reports of the 878 people taking advantage of the transportation service, 320 crossed through Dajabon, (36%), 209 via Elias Pina (24%), 177 via Jimani (20%) and 172 via Pedernales (20%).

These figures do not take into account those Haitians who have crossed using one of the estimated 181 informal crossing points all along the Dominican-Haitian border.

According to the data, half of the Haitians leaving Dominican territory are adult males (32,805), 27% are women (17,626) and 23% (15,496) are children.

http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14794-haiti-dominican-republic-65-927-voluntary-returns-to-haiti.html