SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AFP) — The Dominican Republic said Monday it had arrested 2,000 people from gang violence-riddled Haiti in a crackdown on public hospitals, including hundreds of women in the country to give birth safely.

The Caribbean country launched a series of raids in April on public health facilities, with new requirements for patients to show identification, proof of employment and residence.

The United Nations (UN) said the crackdown was “in violation of international standards”.

Dominican President Luis Abinader has championed a MAGA-style hard line on migration since first coming to power in 2020, with mass expulsions of Haitians and the construction of a wall that so far stretches across more than half the border.

According to a document obtained by AFP, migration officials detained 2,188 Haitians between April 21 and May 30, including 186 pregnant women and 559 who had recently given birth.

They also arrested 648 children.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is riddled with poverty and gang violence against a backdrop of political instability. This violence has intensified over the past year.

More than a million people have been displaced.

Many migrants from Haiti, a Creole and French-speaking nation of some 11 million people of mainly African descent, are fleeing violent gangs that control about 85 per cent of Port-au-Prince, the capital.

But many in the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic have turned on their neighbours who cross the border, accusing them of taking Dominican jobs and resources.