A senior UN official recently encouraged the Dominican Republic’s government to resume its operation in opening the border with Haiti and utilize diplomacy to settle the current issue between both nations over a river shared by both.
In reaction to Haiti’s intentions to construct a canal on the Massacre River, the Dominican Republic recently ordered the border closure last week, claiming it breaches a number of border treaties between the two countries, who share the island of Hispaniola.
- Advertisement -
The border must be reopened, according to William O’Neill, the senior UN representative for human rights in Haiti.
O’Neill said in Geneva, “I urge the government to reconsider its decision which will have serious impacts on people on both sides of the border.”
He continued by saying that many Dominican firms depend on commerce with Haiti and hire Haitians.
According to O’Neill, the effects of the border closure will be considerably worse for Haiti because the country imports a lot of its food and medical supplies from its neighbor.
O’Neill noted, “Directors of medical clinics in Haiti have told me that they will not be able to care for their patients if access to the Dominican Republic is cut off” he added, “Lives are at stake.”
Until the canal project is stopped, the land, air, and sea borders between the Dominican Republic and Haiti will stay blocked, declared President Luis Abinader.
In a televised address to the nation, Abinader mentioned the closing of its “land, air, and sea border” with Haiti and the bolstering of its military presence throughout its borders, saying that the restrictions would be in place “until we achieve the definitive stoppage of the canal under construction,”
O’Neill’s views were labeled “biased and unfortunate” by President Luis Abinader’s administration.
In addition to already existing difficulties between the Caribbean neighbors, the diplomatic issue is the result of migration from Haiti, one of the world’s poorest countries, to the more developed Dominican Republic.
After the original report of the border closure, the Haitian government stated that “the Republic of Haiti can make sovereign decisions on the exploitation of its natural resources.”
Haitian visas have also been blocked by the Dominican government due to the canal conflict. Prior to the complete border closure, it shuttered the Dajabon crossing, one of the busiest and where a twice-weekly cross-border market is held.
To keep unauthorized migrants out, Dominican officials are constructing a 160-kilometer (100-mile) concrete wall along the 380-kilometer border with Haiti.
