The Dominican government announced on Tuesday that for ‘humanitarian reasons’ it decided to resume exports to Haiti, after the total closure of borders ordered last Wednesday, hours after the assassination of the latter’s president, Jovenel Moise.
The measure seeks to reduce the possibility of a general shortage in Haiti that would produce social instability and migratory flows towards the Dominican border, said a communiqué sent by the National Palace.
The document explains that this seeks to ‘preserve national security’ and maintain ‘preventive control’ of the possible increase in irregular migratory flows as a result of the political and social instability produced by the assassination.
‘The sustainability of security depends very much on the normalization of commercial exchange between the two countries. Haitian citizens need Dominican agricultural and agro-industrial products to supply their food needs’, the document states.
In the last week, the Dominican authorities allowed small groups of Haitians to cross the northern border through the Masacre river, at the height of the municipality of Dajabón, to buy food.
Also allowed, as of Monday, the passage of tanker trucks carrying natural gas, fuel that Haiti imports through Dominican ports.
The Dominican Republic, first exporter of food to Haiti, closed its borders on July 7, after learning of the assassination, and also suspended flights to the neighboring country.
