The International Organization for Migration (IOM) looks into the impact the coronavirus is having on the large migration of Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Jobs in construction and tourism have been lost, leaving hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants without income. The IOM estimates that 75% of Haitians that had regularized their status in the country have lost their jobs, or around 144,000. Most of these are not covered by government subsidies available to those in the formal sector or those covered by the Solidarity Card.
For the present time, there seem to be more Haitians trying to cross the border back to Haiti than to enter the Dominican Republic. Outside of numbers of jobs still available in farms, most of the city and tourism destination jobs were wiped out after airlines cancelled flights and the government ordered people to stay at home. The lack of public transportation is also a major deterrent for Haitians to get around in the cities.
“This largely explains why there are contingents of people every day at the Dajabón-Ouanaminthe border trying to return to their country, in the face of economic uncertainty and the loss of their sources of income,” explained IOM’s head of mission in the Dominican Republic, Josué Gastelbondo, in a statement.
As of the first week of April, 6,231 Haitian nationals have voluntarily returned to their country through authorized border crossing points, according to data from the Migration Agency (DGM) cited by IOM.
In view of the situation on the Dominican-Haitian border, IOM recommended strengthening epidemiological controls at the crossing points, since controlling the spread of the virus is a global task.
“Today more than ever, situations in one country have an impact on the other. The massive voluntary returns are a distressing departure for the Haitian population, leading to a return without options to improve living conditions in either country,” concluded the IOM head of mission in the Dominican Republic.
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15 April 2020