ARTICLE - HAITIANS FLEE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

3,000 HAITIANS FLEE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC UNDER THREAT
(FOX) - EFE

About 3,000 Haitians, whose country is still reeling from a devastating earthquake and cholera epidemic, have fled neighboring Dominican Republic under threat.

SANTIAGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Close to 3,000 undocumented Haitians living in this northern Dominican city fled the country after locals threatened to expel them for alleged criminal activities, community leaders said.

Some 2,800 undocumented Haitians have been living in the San Jose and La Mina districts and, according to reports, 2,700 had left those communities by late Thursday, even though residents of the two neighborhoods decided not to carry out their threats.

Dominican residents in those neighborhood had threated to expel on Jan. 3 all the undocumented Haitians, blaming them for most area crime.

Local residents also said that the Haitians posed a danger of spreading cholera, since they lived in overcrowded quarters with no bathrooms, leading them to defecate in plastic bags that they left on the premises of schools, homes, stores and elsewhere.

Haiti is currently in the grip of a cholera epidemic that has claimed nearly 1,800 lives since mid-October.

"Today nearly all of them are gone. Only about 100 are still here, the ones who study and work and have been living in our communities from five to 13 years," Jose Francisco Consuegra, president of the Neighborhood Association of San Jose and La Mina, told Efe.

The chief of Haitian affairs in the Santiago Migration Office, Ramon Ureña, told the press that he met with community leaders of those neighborhoods and representatives of the Haitian groups and they came to an amicable agreement, in which the community promised to include in its activities those immigrants who chose to remain in the area.

He also said that the Migration Office will provide temporary residency permits to Haitians living illegally in San Jose and La Mina so they can continue with their activities without further problems.

At the same time Consuegra described as "appropriate" and "civil" the Haitians' decision to leave voluntarily.

Dominican officials estimate that around 1 million Haitians live in the country, most of them illegal immigrants who work in agriculture and construction.

The Dominican Republic and Haiti share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, with Haiti in the western portion. Though both countries are poor, Haiti is destitute, and Haitians cross the border to do work that many Dominicans will not do, such as harvesting sugar cane.

Haitians have been the target of mob violence numerous times in recent years, and the Dominican government has been widely criticized for its treatment of the migrants.