On March 24, a Haitian national accused of trafficking and sexually abusing teenage girls was arrested in the Dominican beach town of Puerto Plata, a popular tourist destination, El Nuevo Diario reported. The 40-year-old man had a warrant out for his arrest in Haiti for recruiting girls and forcing them into prostitution. Two of the victims – ages 13 and 16 – said that they were taken against their will and forced to have sex with foreigners.

Spanish news outlet El País also recently detailed how Haitian children are smuggled across the border and then forced to work, shining shoes, cleaning car windows, and begging in the streets — only to have their proceeds taken from them. In illegal gambling rings, young boys are pitted against each other in dangerous street fights, El País reported.

According to Haitian child protection legislation, anyone below the age of 18 can be considered a victim of child trafficking.

“There is no migration control, no possibility or intention to combat child trafficking or any form of trafficking,” said Sylvestre Fils, director of the Observatory of Migration and Transfrontier Trafficking, a non-governmental organization based in the Haitian border city of Ouanaminthe.

Dominican troops at border crossings accept bribes of 500 to 2,000 pesos (about $9 to $35) to turn a blind eye to the smuggling of contraband and people, he told El País.

In an attempt to crack down on illicit cross-border activity, including human smuggling, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader announced that the country will begin building a 400-kilometer wall across the entirety of its shared border with Haiti later this year. It will be equipped with facial recognition camera and radars, he said.

Though child trafficking from Haiti to the Dominican Republic has long been an issue, trafficking rings appear to be taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic, which has worsened poverty and hunger in Haiti, to target more children.