Construction is underway for a border barrier between the Dominican Republic and Haiti to curb illegal immigration.
Reuters reported Sunday that the Dominican government began building a wall covering almost half of that nation’s 244-mile border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola to try and stop illegal immigration, drugs, and weapons smuggling into the country.
"The benefit for both nations will be of great importance," Dominican President Luis Abinader told Reuters as the construction began by pouring concrete into the structure’s foundations in the Province of Dajabon, the Dominican capital.
While the two countries share about half of the Caribbean Island, they have experienced different fortunes, with the Dominican Republic benefiting from a robust Caribbean tourist industry, while Haiti remains one of the world’s poorest nations and is suffering through a high crime rate and scandals with the recent assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse, including the reported involvement of Prime Minister Ariel Henry in the assassination plot, the Hill reported.
As a result, thousands of Haitians go to the Dominican Republic to find work, according to the report.
A 2018 immigration survey found 500,000 Haitians and thousands more of their descendants are living in the Dominican Republic, which declared its independence from Haiti Feb. 27, 1844.
According to the United Nations affiliate, the International Organization for Migration, the large amount of immigration from Haiti to the Dominican Republic causes management, and the protection of vulnerable immigrants to be a “major challenge” on the island.
In 2013, the Dominican Government required Haitian nationals, and other foreigners born between 1929-2007, that were in the country to register in the National Plan of Regularization of Foreigners to confirm their residency status and be allowed on a temporary basis, or to get naturalization status, the organization reported.
When the registration deadline expired in 2015, it authorized the Dominican government to begin deporting Haitians that did not have documentation reporting their status in the country.
The IOM partnered with other organizations to monitor border crossings between the two countries to provide credible statistical data regarding the Haitians that returned to Haiti either forcibly or voluntarily, the agency 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 last year when he announced the plan for the wall, the BBC reported at the time.
The report said a cost estimate for the wall was not disclosed.
According to Reuters, the wall will be 20-centimeters thick of concrete, 12.8-feet high, topped with a wire mesh, and include fiber optics for communications, movement sensors, cameras, radar, and drones.
It will also include 70 watchtowers and 41 access gates for patrols, the story said.
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