Dominican Republic - Haiti Fence
The Caribbean island of Hispaniola is home to two countries: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Both have a population of around 10 million — but the average Haitian is nearly 10 times poorer than the average Dominican. A border of 376 kilometers separates the two countries which share Hispaniola. There is a long history of spatial conflict between Dominicans and Haitians. The Dominican State has always been keen to promote its own, European-centered nationalism over what they see as Haitian primitivism and disorder, poverty, voudou and Africa. In most places the only indication of a border are the alternating “mojones,” markers inscribed “1929, RD” or “RH” (República Dominicana or République d’Haïti).
The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, announced plans 28 February 2021 to build a fence along the country's border with Haiti. Abinader said the barrier will help curb illegal immigration, drugs and the flow of stolen vehicles between the two countries, which share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Work on the barrier would start later this year, he said. “In a period of two years, we want to put an end to the serious problems of illegal immigration, drug trafficking and the movement of stolen vehicles,” Abinader said in an address to Congress.
Haiti is one of the main trading partners of the Dominican Republic. Between the two nations, a large land trade takes place every week in the provinces of Dajabón, Elías, and Pedernales. It is estimated that trade between the two nations economic volume ranges from RD $ 60 to RD $ 70 million each week. Despite socio-cultural and border conflicts, Haiti is the second main destination both in volume and in amount of national exports. In addition to informal markets, there is a large and important export and import business.
According to data published by the Dominican Association of Exporters, exports to Haiti have shown steady growth in recent years, with an average rate of 20%, with main products: cotton fabrics, wheat flour, cookies, steel rods, cement, among others. Land trade provides greater ease to bilateral traders, however, there is no shortage of those who daily challenge the authorities to try to make a parallel business outside the established regulations. Scattered along the border between Haiti and Dominican Republic are a series of border crossings that offer a free trade zone to the population of the two countries.
A 1929 treaty delineated where one country ended and the other began. This was news to some Haitians and Dominicans who suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the border. A Dominican Republic constitutional change in 2010 and a 2013 Constitutional Tribunal ruling revised the country’s citizenship laws. One effect was to strip retroactively Dominican citizenship from approximately 135,000 persons, mostly the children of undocumented Haitian migrants, who had previously been conferred Dominican citizenship by virtue of jus soli (birthright citizenship) since 1929. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) found that these legal revisions led to statelessness for the persons who lost their Dominican citizenship.
The Dominican Republic CESFRONT (Specialized Border Security Corps) is an outgrowth of a US effort to promote “strong borders” abroad as part of its Global War on Terror. A 2017 Dominican Republic National Statistics Office and UN Population Fund study estimated Haitians constituted 7.4 percent of the population, of whom two-thirds were Haitian-born immigrants and one-third were persons of Haitian descent. Haitian workers’ lack of documentation and uncertain legal status in the country made them more vulnerable to forced labor. NGOs reported many irregular Haitian laborers and citizens of Haitian descent did not exercise their rights due to fear of being fired or deported. The porous border with Haiti allowed some Haitian children to be trafficked into the country, where they were forced into commercial sexual exploitation or forced to work in agriculture, often alongside their parents, domestic work, street vending, or begging. There was evidence of racial prejudice and discrimination against persons of dark complexion, Haitians, or those perceived to be Haitian.
At the beginning of 2019, the Dominican Government also built a fence in the El Carrizal, Elías Piña community in the Elías Piña border province to try to make tax collection more efficient. That decision generated a strong confrontation with shots and stones between Haitians and nationals in that area. The Dominican military responded to an assault with stones launched by Haitian nationals. In fact, one Haitian was killed and another injured in the skirmish. The investigation carried out by the national authorities showed that in the security perimeter established at the height of pyramid 181, where the perimeter fence of the new Customs facilities was built, a mob of Haitians protested and burned tires, to try to prevent the work.
The Dominican Republic announced plans in December 2019 to build a fence at the border, specifically at the Mal Paso border point, in Jimaní, Independencia province. The objectives of the work, which would be 17 kilometers long, are to make tax collection more efficient and to counter smuggling and drug trafficking at that border point, a high-level source from the Dominican Republic Army revealed yesterday. For these purposes, the General Directorate of Customs (DGA) called for a public tender exclusively for the purchase of the materials that will be used in the construction of the fence, which will be lifted by the Ministry of Defense. With the call for bids, published in the national press, the DGA complied with the provisions of Law 340-06 on Purchases and Public Contracting of Goods, Works and Concessions.
The Dominican Republic began building a wall to cover parts of its border with Haiti on 20 February 2022. The wall will cover nearly half of the 392-kilometer (244-mile) border between the two countries. "The benefit for both nations will be of great importance," Dominican President Luis Abinader said at the start of construction. "The severe institutional and security crisis that [Haiti] is going through has brought its people to a worrying situation of social and political instability," Abinader said.
The wall will be 3.9 meters high and will be complete with fiber optics, movement sensors, cameras, radars and drones. The wall will be made from 20-centimeter (7.8-inches) thick concrete and topped by a metal mesh. The Dominican army said that there would be 70 watchtowers along the wall. The Dominican Republic started the project ahead of the anniversary of the country's independence from Haiti on February 27, 1844. Abinader said the border wall would reduce the smuggling of commercial goods and weapons and human trafficking, as well as help fight organized crime in the two countries.
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