Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Sep 01, 2025

Dominican Republic cracks down at border amid Haiti chaos

Dominican Republic cracks down at border amid Haiti chaos

As Haiti rapidly spirals into chaos, its island neighbor, the Dominican Republic, has responded with crackdowns on migrants and a military buildup the government claims will “guarantee border security.”

But some fear those moves will only deepen long-existing xenophobia against Haitian migrants and harm both nations’ economies.

On Sunday, Dominican President Luis Abinader announced the country’s biggest purchase of military gear since 1961 – six helicopters, ten aircraft, 21 armored vehicles and four anti-riot trucks.

If international troops are sent in response to an appeal by Haiti’s government for help against gangs, “We would close and block the border. … It’s very dangerous for the integrity of the Dominican Republic to receive asylum seekers in the country,” Abinader said in a press conference.

Dominican officials also announced that they would consider even greater migratory controls on the Haitian border in the future.

Tensions have long simmered between the two nations, which share a more than 240-mile border on the island of Hispaniola.

Haiti’s crisis has been exacerbated by the 2021 assassination of ex-Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and gangs have gained increasing power in confronting a weak government. That has spurred a massive flight of migrants and the Dominican Republic has gradually grown more hardline with its migratory and border policies.

Among its most drastic actions has been to begin construction of a Trump-style wall along the border.

Migrant aid leaders like William Charpantier Blanco, head of the National Comittee for Migrants and Refugees in the capital of Santo Domingo, said anti-migrant groups have grown empowered under the new policies.

“The migratory situation in the Dominican Republic has never been good, but in the past two years, it’s gotten far worse,” he said. “With the economic and political crisis Haiti is living through, the Dominican government has had massive deportation crackdowns.”

Charpantier Blanco also noted that migrants were mostly working-class Haitians, but now his organization is seeing a growing wave of middle-class and elite fleeing.

One of Haiti’s most powerful gangs — as well as anti-government protesters — have laid siege to key fuel supplies in Port-au-Prince, causing shortages not just of fuel, but water and other basic supplies. Abinader previously described Haiti’s turmoil as a “low-intensity civil war.”

As a result, the UN Security Council is considering a request by Haiti’s government to send foreign troops to pacify the gangs, or at least alleviate the blockade.

The disorder has amplified fears by many Dominicans like Paterno Valenzuela that gang violence could trickle into their own country.

Valenzuela, 56, is a farmer along the border town of Elias Pina, and said while he hasn’t seen an uptick in violence in his area, he is “preparing because this crisis in Haiti is really bad.”

The Dominican farmer described seeing large groups of migrants climbing through the mountains fleeing the country and expressed concern about rising contraband like gasoline flowing across the border. He said he would support a foreign intervention if it were to come to that.

Yet the Caribbean country could stand to lose significantly if it were to close its border.

Officially, some $750 million is exported each year from the Dominican Republic to Haiti, the country’s third largest trading partner. More than $400 million more in products is traded informally between the two countries, according to a 2017 study by the Dominican Central Bank.

Valenzuela’s town is one of many border economies that are intrinsically tied to the neighboring country, depending on Haitian buyers as a basic source of income.

“All these towns (on the border) depend on the Haitian market,” he said.

Meanwhile, Haitian migrants like Charlie, who declined to give his last name out of fear of retaliation, continue to live in a legal shadowland. He echoed worries by migrant aid leaders like Charpantier Blanco that things could only get worse.

Charlie, 20, has lived in the Dominican Republic most of his life and works in a bakery in Santo Domingo. He has no memory of childhood in Haiti, yet earlier this year was one of thousands of migrants deported to Haiti amid crackdowns by the government.

Like many, he returned to the Dominican Republic with the help of a friend who smuggled him back in.

“I don’t know anyone there (in Haiti),” he said.

Now he tries to be inconspicuous.

“I leave early in the morning and I come home at night. I stay in the business (the bakery) and there are sometimes when I stay on Sundays,” he said. “It’s a clandestine life … a very difficult life.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×