Haitian Migrants Must Get Dominican Work Permits For a dozen years, Romain Renelus has made his life in the Dominican Republic as a migrant laborer, working 12 hours a day to earn $235 monthly as caretaker at a condominium complex. A night job as a guard at another residential building provides $210 more each month to support his wife and two daughters back home. Haitian workers such as Renelus have long been a mainstay of Dominican agriculture, construction and other low-wage industries. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have crossed the border in search of jobs in a country that is still poor, but better off than their homeland. But new Dominican requirements for work permits worry the employers, the workers and their advocates, who say it will become harder and more expensive to hire Haitian laborers. An estimated 1 million Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, which has a population of about 10 million. As an independent worker, the 40-year-old Renelus said he would seek to renew his visa and passport, both currently expired, because of an expected increase in the scrutiny of migrants. But he doesn't think it will be easy: a new passport will cost $129 and a visa $200. Currently, no work permits exist, but migrant workers have to present an entry visa and proof of residency to legally work in the country. "It is very hard for us to settle such expenses," he said. It's a lot of money. Some migrant workers worry that their Dominican employers will deduct the costs of all the new paperwork, estimated to reach $800, from their paychecks. The new law does not stipulate whether the employer or employee would pay for the documents needed to obtain a work permit, including a visa, passport, birth certificate, a medical certificate and criminal background check. Any Haitian seeking a birth certificate is forced to return to Haiti to obtain it. "This is going to be traumatic," said the Rev. Mario Serrano, a Roman Catholic priest who provides assistance to migrants and refugees and studies labor issues as the director of the nonprofit Bono Center. No one is going to be able to comply with these rules. The requirements took effect June 1, but the government says the rules won't be enforced until month's end. Employers will then have to have a work permit for each non-Dominican employee. Human rights groups have long complained about Dominican immigration policies toward Haitians, calling on the country to revise deportation rules to ensure due process and avoid race-based discrimination. An extensive report on the issue by Human Rights Watch a decade ago described the historic tensions between the neighboring countries and the Dominican Republic's deportations of suspected "Haitian-looking" people with darker skin. Haitian Ambassador Fritz Cienas called on Dominican authorities last month to ensure the human rights of Haitian workers affected by the new work permit rules. Creole-speaking Haiti and the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola and a troubled history. Haiti invaded and occupied the Dominican Republic for more than 20 years in the 19th century and Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the massacre of an estimated 20,000 Haitians in 1937 as he sought to remove them en masse from the country.