http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=18678


Dominican Immigration deports over 1,300 Haitians
10/16/2006


SANTIAGO. - Dominican authorities today repatriated 1,370 Haitians who were detained over the weekend during operations carried out in the country north and northwest, official sources said.

Immigration Agency authorities told the press that 640 of the Haitians deported were intercepted in Santiago (North) when they secretly came from the northwest towards the Dominican capital on several buses. Five Dominicans, who presumably were in charge of transporting the undocumented immigrants, were accused of trafficking with people.

The immigrants said that they paid between 1,500 and 3,000 pesos (between 45 and 90 dollars) to the Dominicans for the aborted trip. The rest of the repatriated were arrested in raids by the authorities in Santiago and in the provinces Valverde, Montecristi and Dajabón, added the sources.

The Dominican authorities began the raids after inhabitants in different provinces and municipalities in the north and northwest threatened expelling the immigrants on their own, blaming them for most robberies and assaults in those localities.

Local organizations have warned of a "significant" growth in Haitian immigration to the Dominican Republic in the last months. According to these groups, in some localities the Dominican north and northwest the Haitians outnumber Dominicans, but a real census does not exist.

Dominican authorities estimate that some one million mostly undocumented Haitians live in the countries, who work mainly in the sugar and construction industries.