The Dominican-Haitian border has always been at the center of diplomatic relations between the two nations, with irregular migratory flows being a controversial point for both sides.
For this reason, the need to improve surveillance of the island’s dividing line has been a common topic for the Dominican authorities. The Luis Abinader administration has already presented an alternative to the problem: modernizing the border by establishing a kind of “technological perimeter” to stop the illegal entry of undocumented persons along the dividing line.
This idea was reached by the Chancellor of the Republic, Roberto Álvarez, while reading the points agreed between Presidents Luis Abinader and Jovenel Moise, after the meeting they had two weeks ago. There, Álvarez simply referred to the commitment of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to implement “state-of-the-art technologies” that allow us to eliminate the scourge of illegal transfer of people from one neighboring country to another.
Later, during his participation in the Listin Diario breakfast, the official explained that the Israeli company, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, is designing a pilot project to establish a technological perimeter at the border.
But what is Rafael’s story? Rafael, (also known as Raphael, acronym in Hebrew for the Armaments Development Authority), is a defense technology company and has its roots more than 70 years ago in the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
It was founded as the National Research and Development Laboratory of that country, to strengthen the defense and improve the weapons of the army. At the beginning of the new millennium, it was restructured as a state-owned company, after operating in the 1990s with losses of millions of dollars.
How does it work? “The company has been at the forefront of advances in defense, cybernetics and security solutions for air, land, sea and space,” said the company’s portal, highlighting its extensive catalog of services. In terms of border protection, Rafael offers his services in various ways, including Sisdome, a “tailor-made suite for border protection”, which, according to Rafael, allows users to locate, analyze and counter possible threats to frontier.
The benefits of this system include the collection of real-time information from a certain area, 24-hour monitoring and the high adaptability of the system to the whim of the operator.
There is also SISCOM, defined as “the heart of Rafael’s security solutions and systems”, which provides protection not only for borders but also for energy facilities, seaports, coasts and offshore sites.
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Despite the many possibilities offered by Rafael in terms of border protection, the foreign minister said that the success of the project will be determined by the human quality controlled by technology.
“Because if you don’t have someone who, when there’s a breakup … then you need the right human response,” he said. In addition to the technological flow at the border, the agreement between Haiti and the Dominican Republic aims to reduce trafficking and human trafficking, the flow of weapons, drug trafficking and animal theft, among other illegal activities.