In the Dominican Republic, shocking video showing a tiny toddler hanging from an imprisoned woman’s arms through a truck’s barred door has sparked uproar.
The event, which happened on Saturday in the municipality of Santo Domingo, was captured on social media cameras, showing the toddler dangling from the back of a moving immigration control truck that local authorities used to transfer detainees.
A woman inside the car, whose arms extend beyond the door’s bars, is the only one who appears to be stopping the child from falling.
An immigration agent sitting on the back platform of the truck, next to the child, seems to be speaking as he extends a hand and rests it on the child’s shoulder.
In a statement, the country’s migration director Venancio Alcántara described the incident as “a disturbing and heartbreaking incident.”
The migration agency said Monday that the agent seen sitting in the back of the truck has been fired, noting that he had only been in his job for 20 days.
The woman, a Haitian national, was released after the agents became aware of the situation, it also said.