Deportations and the exodus of Haitians make food more expensive in the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

Haiti

Published May 14, 2021

Tridge summary

EFE.- A group of irregular Haitian immigrants is deported from the Dominican Republic through the Dajabón pass; In a matter of weeks, like a butterfly effect, the price of rice with beans is more expensive in the markets of Santo Domingo. The nexus between these two events with no apparent causal relationship between them is very evident for farmers in the province of San Juan (west), one of the main agricultural areas of the Caribbean country.

Original content

And it is that in these fertile valleys at the foot of the Central Cordillera, nine out of ten rural workers are Haitians, and most of them lack papers, which is why they are easy targets of deportation campaigns for irregular immigrants. So far this year, 6,162 Haitians have been deported to their country, according to official Dominican statistics. The availability of labor has been further affected because since 2020 more than 200,000 Haitians have voluntarily returned to their country due to the pandemic, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). "This year there has been a lot of difficulty with labor and that contributes to problems for harvesting and for the different tasks," farmer Agustín Báez told EFE. It may interest you: Dominican Republic has already built 23 km of fence on the border with Haiti This rural producer estimates that his production costs have risen between 20% and 25% this year due to the shortage of workers, a problem ...

Source: Forbescentroamerica