SANTIAGO, Dominican Republic – Authorities and civic groups on Wednesday denounced the “alarming” increase in the trafficking of Haitian children to the Dominican Republic over the past three weeks.

The ombudswoman for children and families in the northern province of Santiago, Antia Beato, said that the large number of Haitian children roaming the streets of Santiago trying to get money by begging, shining shoes or cleaning windshields was “worrying.”

She told Efe that the law that created the Minor Code in the Dominican Republic is a system to protect the children and that prosecutors, immigrations officials and the National Children’s Council, or Conani, should intervene in the case.

Immigration authorities must establish the status of those children of Haitian origin and Conani must place them in schools, Beato said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors have the responsibility to determine if any adults are profiting from and exploiting the minors.

“We’re here to guarantee the basic rights of the children without regard to their nationality, not to punish them. Determining their legal situation in the country is the task of immigration” authorities,” she stressed.

For her part, the coordinator of the educational program of the institution Street Action in Santiago, Bentodima Jimenez, told Efe that her organization offers assistance to more than 35 at-risk Haitian children who roam the streets of the city.

She said the children are transported to the Dominican Republic by “strangers” who “dump them on the streets without regard for the risk to them.”

In addition, she acknowledged that the work with the Haitian minors is much more difficult because of their difficulties learning Spanish, integrating themselves into society and because they do not have the support of their parents.

A source at the regional immigration office told Efe that the problem of the Haitian children and teenagers who are smuggled from their country to the northern Dominican Republic “seems like it will never end.”

Her institution repatriates between 15 and 22 Haitian children per day, but each night more than 100 others arrive, including the same ones who had been previously deported, the source said.

The Dominican government announced on Tuesday that army troops will guard the border with Haiti to prevent smuggling and the “massive” immigration of undocumented Haitians.

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 an estimated 1 million Haitians live in the country, most of them illegal immigrants who work in agriculture and construction. EFE