"They're like animals," said an agent with contempt, referring to the Haitians, as he guarded one of the border crossings between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the two countries that share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. In early March, thousands of Haitians were crowding into Ouanaminthe in the nation's northeast, waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the neighboring country, towards the town of Dajabon. Most of them have given up applying for a visa. Some get through by bribing the border police, others try their luck by waiting to catch them off guard. If caught, they are immediately beaten with sticks or pushed back with stun guns.

The Haitian-Dominican border is experiencing one of the most serious crises in recent decades. Gang violence in southern Haiti – particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince – has caused the internal displacement of almost 200,000 people in 2023, and 15,000 in the last week of February.

On March 2, in an unprecedented series of attacks by armed groups, over 3,000 prisoners in the capital's prison were freed. The police guarding the prison were unable to repel the assault and, according to sources in Port-au-Prince, many of them fled in the face of an imminent attack on the facility. This situation, coupled with several days of intense violence, the attack on Port-au-Prince International Airport, and aggressive demonstrations by gang leaders, has led to a considerable increase in migration flows.

This Monday, March 4, like every day in Dajabon, trucks loaded with Haitians captured by Dominican migration authorities in various parts of the country arrive every two hours. The trucks are equipped with metal cages in which around a hundred people are crammed. According to the Centre Montalvo, a think tank linked to the Catholic Church, at least 1,000 people are deported each day. A migration official who asked not to be identified confirmed this figure, saying that the Dominican state's capacity to deport these people was overwhelmed.

The expulsion method is simple. The trucks back up until they are less than three meters from the border gate, where police officers then round up the migrants, beating them or administering electric shocks, and force them to return to Haiti. On the other side, dozens of people wait for an opportunity to sneak into the Dominican Republic. "The authorities have been on the alert since the prison break on March 2," explained Bueno, an officer in charge of security at the bridge that crosses the Rivière du Massacre ("Massacre River," called Rio Dajabon by the Dominicans), marking the border between the two countries.

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