SANTO DOMINGO, May 6, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The Dominican Republic has deported more than 119,000 Haitians so far in 2025, an increase of 71 percent over the same period last year, immigration authorities said Monday.

Boosting deportations to Haiti -- the region's poorest nation which is ravaged by gang violence -- was a campaign promise of Dominican President Luis Abinader, reelected in May 2024 for a second term.

"The General Directorate of Migration (DGM) repatriated 32,540 Haitian citizens in irregular migratory status in the country in April, to complete the figure of 119,003 in the four-month period January-April 2025," the agency said in a statement.

This figure "represents an increase of 71% compared to the same period of the previous year," it added. In 2024, there were a total of 276,215 deportations.

The Dominican Republic in late April began raids on public hospitals to arrest undocumented pregnant women and mothers with newborns in a crackdown on arrivals from neighboring Haiti.

Rights groups have criticized the measure as "cruel."

President Abinader has also announced plans to extend a 54-kilometer (33-mile) wall between the Caribbean nations, which share the island of Hispaniola, and recently deployed more troops to the border.

About 500,000 Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, a country of 11.3 million people, according to official data.