SANTO DOMINGO.- Labor minister Max Puig Wednesday received in his office a human rights delegation from the United States that includes Haitians, amid expectations of backlash by Dominican nationalists who see the visit as yet another effort to pressure the country into accepting the presence of illegal migrants.

The group is in the country gathering current information on the migratory status of Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

The delegation, which includes civil rights activists and U.S. community leaders of Haitian and Afro-American origin, heard the Labor Minister’s description of Dominican labor laws regarding immigrants.

Puig, who spoke to the delegation on the historical relations between both nations and pending challenges, deplored the marginality and poverty in underdeveloped countries, especially Dominican Republic and Haiti. “We cannot have a rich world and a poor world, but we cannot either have a poor Dominican Republic and a poorer Haiti.”

The official thanked the delegation for its interest of preserving and improving relations between the two nations, and especially for their concern with the situation of the Haitian workers, “because this will help us to know the reality more concretely and will allow for a better enforcement of the law.”

The delegation included Josue Renaud, president of New England Human Rights for Haití, based in Boston; Joe Beasley, president of the African Descent Organization, of Atlanta, Georgia; Bruce McMillan, of the U.S. Government’s Equal Opportunity; Janice Mathis, vice president of Rainbow Push Coalition; Jean Claude Sanin, candidate to the Boston City Council; Franklyn Dalembert, of the Haitian Coalition, based in the U.S.; Jonathan Regis, of the International Action Center; Julio Midy, of the agency InfoHaiti.net; Edwin Paraison, ex Haitian consul in the country and head of the Zile Foundation, which promotes better relations between Haitians and Dominicans.