Haitian workers face abuses in Dominican Republic, says priest

Published: 2006-01-23

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Despite the Dominican Republic's poverty, its relative economic and political stability attracts neighboring Haitians, who slip across the border looking for work, said a priest who has lived for 31 years along the Dominican-Haitian frontier. But the Haitians' illegal status makes them vulnerable to abuses, including death, said Jesuit Father Regino Martinez, who buried 24 Haitians whose dead bodies were found Jan. 11 abandoned in several spots along a road on the Dominican side of the border. Dominican police said the dead were thrown from a van after they had suffocated in it. The van was transporting the Haitians to the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo after they slipped across the frontier with the help of professional smugglers, police said. The two countries share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Father Martinez is director of Border Solidarity, a Jesuit-run organization in the Dominican Republic working with Haitian immigrants. He said although there are accords between the neighboring countries allowing Haitians to work in the Dominican Republic many Haitians are too poor to get the identity papers needed for a Haitian passport or a Dominican visa.

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