Dominican Republic steps up forces on Haiti border

Last Updated on Monday, 7 April 2025, 22:21 by Writer

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (AFP) – The Dominican Republic’s President Luis Abinader said Sunday he was deploying more troops to the country’s border with Haiti, which is suffering a grave security crisis.

Abinader added that he had approved construction of a new section of a wall between the two countries, which share the second-largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba.

Abinader, who was first elected in 2020 and secured a second term last year, has made battling immigration a top issue for his administration, conducting mass expulsions of undocumented Haitians.

Around 86,400 were expelled between January and March, after 276,000 were expelled in 2024, according to official data.

“We will step up surveillance of the borders with 1,500 additional troops, on top of 9,500 already deployed,” the president said in a speech on migration.

The stretches for more than 300 kilometres roughly north to south across the island of Hispaniola.

Abinader said his government would “speed up construction of the border wall”, adding a further 13 kilometres to the 54 already installed.

Around 500,000 Haitian immigrants live in the Dominican Republic, out of a total 10.5 million inhabitants, according to official data.