Delivery from Haiti took place a month ago. Less young people work as a cleaner in a hotel; the youngest hasn’t found anything yet. She is 20 years old, and later she resumed the conversation in various euphemistic forms by offering her sexual services to her: «If you cansado. Do you want a massage? “. She insists: « Do we want to spend a pleasant day? ».
And then he says that she tener hambre, which is a form of pedir ayuda and is, also, the reason for his offering. Dajabón is a small Dominican city that is bordered to the west by a wall. Behind the wall you cross the Masacre River, which in this section marks the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The expansion of the wall and Haitian immigration in general were the main theme of the electoral campaign for the general elections last Sunday the 19th. Sobre esta cuestión todos los candidates decían lo mismo: taller, wider, more supervised.
He welcomed Luis Abinader and reconfirmed his mandate as president of the Dominican Republic in 2020. In one of his election announcements, with background music, distinct scenes took place on the front with the wall as the protagonist and many soldiers and combat tanks , also, flying helicopters, multi-panel video surveillance, biometric recordings, drones, planes and aircraft: «Because everything has a limit except the pride of being Dominican».
But the reality at the Dajabón crossing is very different. The movement of people and goods on the front is intense and the controls are very lively. There are many people, including all Haitians, and the flow of people walking is constant.
There are also a lot of vehicles and there are some problems because it is a chaotic situation for so many people to come in and sell. our governments, without distinction of ideologies, to move our armed forces to slow it down. Halfway across the bridge over the Masacre River, the line is in front and there is now a double metal door (open to view at the end of the day) flanqueada for the Dominican and Haitian soldiers, each on their own side.
Don’t stop passing people, on one path or another, dozens and hundreds, on foot or on motorbikes, without checking anyone. There are people bathing in the river and people drifting in the two orillas.
They are all Haitian, because the Dominican wall, even if it does not reach two meters in height, makes access from this side difficult. Previously, in the headquarters of the Catholic organization Centro Montalvo, a UNHCR operator (who refused a formal request) announced it: «he has nothing to do with what he says to politicians with what he wants to see». At the bridge, one of the soldiers said more or less the same thing, even after the matizaba: “Do another check where you arrive at the aduana or the market, otherwise you have to enter Dajabón.”
El río Masacre, the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. I must, groups of people who frequent the zone A. Cabrera In neutral ground The market of what is called the Mercato Binacional (hoy cerrado), located in Dominican land between the two controls, in a sort of neutral zone precisely to facilitate trade between the two countries. The soldier’s explanation continues: «The ‘motoconchos’ associated with the union enter
Dominican territory, but only go to authorized commercial areas. You can’t leave Dajabón.” In practice, in the second check they noticed many more cargo motorbikes and fewer people going on foot. Control in step with the borders of Dajabón is the largest number of markets than people. Towing a motorbike are several Haitians who come to work at the workplace.
One of them says: «Dominican jefe mistreat Haitians. No coup. Even the guards carry out our coup.” And another addition: «Nos hacen pagar para pasar». Workers from construction and the fields come and go, students in uniform, traders who sign with the vacío trailer and return loading food for their activities in Haiti; there are people who go to Dajabón to send or receive money, men who load bags of fertilizer and there are women who load blocks of ice onto trolleys because in Haiti there is no electricity and the solar panels are not enough for a refrigerator.
For Haitians the difficulty is not entering Dominican territory, but going up from Dajabón by road, where checks take place; and above all, in the case of going to another city, avoid being deported. But with the deportations it happens as with the wall: they are meditated with a lot of propaganda force but with little effectiveness.
Because despite the growing return of Dominicans to Haitian immigration, and the valorization that each phase of the costs and benefits of this immigration has had, there are three subjects who have clearly benefited from it: their own Haitians, the entrepreneurs with average wages and the ‘wide network of corrupt officials who cobran por mirar hacia on the other side. Son inmigrantes haitianos alrededor 5% of the 11 million inhabitants of the Dominican Republic; Dominican children of Haitian origin approximately 6%.
Son of Haitian immigrants close to 5% of the 11 million inhabitants that the Dominican Republic currently has, David (not his real name) is the owner of a bar-colmado in Dajabón, three manzanas of the wall. He’s behind the counter, and I see it like this: «It seems like we have an obligation to welcome them. They come with a cube, they sell you water, you sell Coca-Cola, you sell everything… And so, if the authorities withdraw from the street, they say they mistreat them. And it’s not that they’re mistreating, it’s that they’re making an informal sale.”
He is married to a Haitian woman and has two children with her. He was in Haiti for the last time in 1973 and didn’t like what he had because she was in a market and ate pear flesh. «Quitan all the work. In construction you are already only them. The Dominican, you go to work in construction, the daily minimum is 1,500 pesos per day (23.50 euros), the Haitian will do it for 600 (9.40 euros)”.
Schools at market time in Dajabón Alfons Cabrera «Is it all worth it? In Haiti it was dark, not here” August supporting a well-stocked fan in the repair shop. He takes 1,000 pesos (16 euros), but he only has 200. He is 46 years old, August is not his real name and he is from Cap-Haïtien, a town on the north coast of Haiti. If he settled in Dajabón he spent four years with his wife and a year after the birth of his daughter. «He was born here thanks to her father Roberto, who accompanied us to the hospital and encouraged us to keep her here».
The parish provides her with assistance, but her main livelihood is construction work. There is no stable job, as long as he goes up every day and earns it, and with perseverance he can work two or three days a week for 800 pesos (12.5 euros) a day. You live with your wife and her wife in a 12 square meter ‘apartment’ for which they pay 60 euros. They keep clean clothes in bags attached to the wall so that mice don’t touch them. Is all this worth it? “It was dark in Haiti and not here.” Our Lady of the Rosary Father Roberto was sent to the canteen next to the church of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Even if I replied to David, it is just a coincidence (or that the theme is so used that it always takes place in the same places): «You can say that we have left work in construction, but what makes the work heavy, more difficult, HI. The bar is in front of Milagritos park: “Do you see it? Ahí there are two Dominican children playing with two Haitians, this is the reality of Dajabón.
This Dominican-Haitian pleito is a pleito that manifests itself on television and radio, but the primary relationships at the border are peaceful relationships: commercial relationships, family relationships, collaboration.” Through the Montalvo Center, part of the parish’s charitable work focuses on accompanying Haitian immigrants: «Here we work with the most vulnerable and one of the problems is immigration.
We do not help those who come to the Dominican Republic until they respect their rights when they arrive.” An 8 or 9 year old Haitian boy tries and offers to clean shoes for 50 pesos (80 cents). Coming up from Dajabón, in the first 70 kilometers you have control. I’m very non-exhaustive because the moment I get clear skin, I don’t look at anything anymore.
