The head of the Migration Agency (DGM), Venancio Alcantara Valdez, told reporters on Saturday, 22 October 2022 that his people were hard at work on the control and deportation of persons who enter the country illegally. He stressed that the Dominican Republic is a sovereign nation, with laws, and will not allow any foreigner to play loose with these laws and the country.
He noted that just in September and October 2022 over 23,000 Haitians had been repatriated across the border. In what might have been an aside, Alcantara Valdez said that the Justice Branch is quite lax on the application of the Migration Law. He said that the three Venezuelans recently deported had entered the country illegally from Haiti.
While Venezuelans need to fly here, Haitians just need to cross at multiple points alongside a 300+ km border with Haiti that is scantly patrolled or patrolled by military that are said to accept a contribution to let people pass. Furthermore, thousands of undocumented Haitians are allowed to enter three times a week for the binational market days in Dajabon and Jimaní with no checks on who returns.
Several mayors and legislators for the border region have denounced the complicity of the military in allowing the undocumented Haitians access. The Dominican Republic is paying a high cost as an escape valve to the multidimensional crisis in Haiti that has left that country without public services.
As crime escalates in Haiti, more and more documented and undocumented Haitians are relocating to the Dominican Republic.
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Diario Libre
El Caribe
24 October 2022