They suggested regularizing Haitians through work contracts, via industry associations.
SANTO DOMINGO – The Santo Domingo East Construction Association (ACOSDE) yesterday asked President Luis Abinader to find a definitive solution to the Haitian repatriation, arguing that the measure has reduced the workforce in the construction sector, which risks stagnating due to the lack of local workers in the trade.
Engineer Riubell Montes de Oca, president of the union, proposed regularizing Haitian workers through employment contracts, via the sector's associations, since these group together the majority of businessmen dedicated to construction.
“Our proposal is that the construction unions filter the workers on construction sites who are not properly registered and, through a work contract, allow them to regularize their status through the Haitian embassy so they can obtain their passports,” he told El Inmobiliario.
He explained that most Haitians with illegal status do not obtain the document in Haiti, which increases the difficulties.
“I understand that it is difficult to have undocumented people in a country, it is a security issue, an immigration law issue that says no one can be irregular, now we have the problem that this irregular labor force is what has allowed construction to develop, so we have to weigh up which one weighs more.”.
"Do we stop construction, or do we identify and regularize the undocumented workers on construction sites through the construction companies themselves and the existing associations that bring together all members of the construction or real estate development industry?" the business leader asked.
Riubell Montes de Oca. (External source).
Riubell Montes de Oca argued that “a definitive solution must be found because this will go up and down, but we must be able to allow construction to continue developing; there are more and more projects and more demands for labor, therefore a definitive solution must be found.”.
It's not the most profitable business
The president of ACOSDE said that in all developed and underdeveloped countries, the construction workforce comes from immigrants, citing countries such as the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, South America, among others.
He opined that construction is not the most profitable business. “If you look at it, a construction project lasts two or three years and the profit margin is 20%, and if you have financing, you know what happens, your margin is much lower.”.
He stated that even paying local workers three times what foreign labor is paid would not provide services in the construction sector.
Prices would increase
Engineer Montes de Oca pointed out, on the other hand, that using local labor would generate additional costs that would have to be passed on to the properties, since they would have to be paid three times as much, although he maintained that even then the locals are not interested in that type of work.
“So we have two problems, two scenarios. We have the cost of construction, but we also have the time that construction is stopped, the time it will take for them to come back and restart, and that means problems for the buyers and clients who have made a sacrifice to buy their properties and who will not be able to have them available at the time they had planned,” he stated.
The General Directorate of Migration reported last week that 27,352 Haitians have been deported so far in October, as part of the repatriation operations carried out by the authorities, which began at the beginning of this month.
