San Juan, Mar 26 (EFE).- Hundreds of people and religious leaders from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico met this Sunday to carry out a march called “Viacrucis del migrante” with the aim of remembering deceased Haitian and Dominican migrants at sea trying to reach Puerto Rico.
The main objective of the procession is “to create awareness of the tragedy that our brothers and sisters in Haiti and the Dominican Republic are experiencing by having to leave their countries,” Roberto Octavio González, metropolitan archbishop of San Juan, told EFE.
Hundreds of believers prayed while carrying portraits of the migrants who died in the march that left the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Carmen located in the municipality of Toa Baja, in the north of Puerto Rico, to the island of Cabra.
Among those attending the activity were the Bishop of Haiti, Pierre-André Dumas, and the Titular Bishop of Giufi of the Dominican Republic, Jesús Castro.
“It is a form of prayer for all the people who died during the sea crossing, that is why we do this procession,” explained Leonard Prophil, community leader of the Haitians in Puerto Rico, adding that this was the first march and they intend to organize further.
At least 321 migrants died or disappeared on sea routes through the Caribbean in 2022, a record number, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Only half of the dead and disappeared in 2022 could be identified, said the IOM, which explained that 80 of this group came from Haiti, 69 from Cuba, 56 from the Dominican Republic and 25 from Venezuela.
“We want to appeal that the laws be more humanitarian, that in our country we can establish a more effective reception mechanism, and above all prayer, spiritual and material solidarity,” said González.
At 77 years old, Puerto Rican Mirta Colón stated that she attended the march for “solidarity with the peoples of the Caribbean” and assured that migrants who arrive in Puerto Rico “once they arrive here they find that they are worse off than in their country.”
For his part, Haitian Faniel Charles, who has been living in Puerto Rico for 18 years, stressed: “I came for my countrymen who have died at sea, to support them.”
Puerto Rico has become a regular destination for migrants arriving from the neighboring island of Hispaniola, which is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
A good part of the migrants who try to reach this Commonwealth of the United States in search of better living conditions are Dominicans and Haitians.
