That’s because Codeco says the Dominican Republic is unable to support any more illegal immigrants from Haiti as the government cannot give them more jobs when there are already one million living in the country.

Codeco said in a report that although trade with Haiti has continued its dynamism, the Dominican economy does not support increased immigration due to the high cost that this means for the Dominican State. 

In a press release issued over the weekend,  Codeco indicated,  that the crisis experienced by the Haitian population exceeds the capacities of the country.

“There is no longer room to give them more employment when there are more than one million Haitians living in the Dominican Republic, of which some 700 are employed in different sectors contributing with their labour to national development and sending remittances of some US$1 billion annually, including those that are not registered in the national accounts,” the statement said.

​Codeco also mentioned that “the high cost to the national budget of protecting the border, plus the expenses in education and health to attend to hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitians, which it said affects the capacity to protect the two million Dominicans living in poverty and in need of government assistance”.

According to the report, the DR is currently helping the Haitian population by supplying the goods they need, sometimes creating food shortages in the domestic market.