Photographer Javier Arcenillas is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the project ‘Haiti Border’. To see Javier’s body of work, click on any image.

Trapped on their own border

Thousands of Haitians take refuge on the line that separates them from the Dominican Republic. They have no way out: they have been deported from this country and have nothing on their own.

If there is a land space reserved for misfortune, it would be Haiti. If anyone could imagine a point on the map where the twists of fate would never occur, it would be this Caribbean country.

In Haiti, however, the festivities, the anniversaries, bring only the memory of a tragedy. Seven years since the fateful earthquake of January 2010, which killed 316,000 people and displaced 1.5 million. Five months since Hurricane Matthew, which left the southern coast toothless and fuelled the cholera pandemic. All forgotten. Reduced to official figures and the generalization of belonging to the poorest country on the American continent and in the entire northern hemisphere. On the 376-kilometer border with the Dominican Republic, it is possible to put a face to them. Even names and surnames, because most of them speak fluent Spanish. They are refugees in their own homeland. Expelled both from their home and from the destination that has sheltered them for years. Now they wait in the furrow that splits the island in two and decide on the possibility of a future.

One of the largest settlements is located a few kilometers from Anse-à-Pitres, the southern pass, close to the coast. It is called Parc Cadeau. In total, it has come to house some 3,178 of the 3,178 displaced people.