A whole-day workshop on the “Present and Future of Relations with Haiti” is programmed to be held at the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University (UNPHU) on Tuesday, 22 November 2022. The workshop was announced via a press release. It will be from 8am to 5pm at Max Henríquez Ureña Hall of the Santo Domingo private university that is located on Av. John F. Kennedy.
UNPHU Rector Miguel Fiallo Calderon said the workshop seeks to contribute ideas and raise awareness about the need for good neighborliness and a harmonious relationship between two countries that share the same island and have a common border.
The UNPHU says the activity aims to analyze Dominican-Haitian relations, emphasizing the impacts of illegal immigration.
The organization of the event is part of the activities of the UNPHU Forum for Social Studies.
The rector says Minister of Foreign Relations Roberto Alvarez, historians Frank Moya Pons, Roberto Cassá, Miguel Reyes Sánchez and Miguel Guerrero have been invited to speak. Also on the program are sociologists Fernando Ferrán and Wilfredo Lozano, and political leader Pelegrín Castillo.
The case of Haitian migration is challenging in the Dominican Republic. On one hand, more than 300 km divide the two countries, with gate checkpoints at points leading to major roads. Market days are held several days a week in the key border cities enabling hundreds of thousands of Haitians to enter freely. The authorities do not check who enters or who leaves.
Moreover, military mafias are said to charge tolls to enable the busloads of migrants to continue on to jobs in the Dominican Republic. Haitians find work here in farms, construction and households because of their willingness to work for low wages.
The collapse of medical and educational services in Haiti has resulted in the Dominican Republic picking up the tab for medical and educational services in the public system at a high cost to taxpayers.
Meanwhile, the multidimensional crisis in Haiti worsens, with the almost total lack of institutions and government, and criminal gangs being much in control. This has resulted in additional pressures for immigration to the Dominican Republic as people come to shop, for basic services and for jobs. Most of the immigrants are undocumented persons, adding to the complexity of the problem.
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UNPHU
17 November 2022