Wednesday evening, the Dominican Senate ratified in the same terms and at the unanimity of the Senators present (26) the bill entitled "Law establishing a special regime for persons bornon the national territory irregularly registered on the Dominican register of civil status and on the naturalization". The bill was passed after the intervention of 14 senators to ensure compliance with the text voted by the Chamber of Deputies Dominicans also in second reading unanimously on May 16 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11168-haiti-denationalisation-filing-of-dominican-bill.html

Now that the bill is ratified by both Houses, the next step is the promulgation of this law and the development of implementing regulations two aspects already underway according to various sources. The Dominican Executive expects to launch June 1, the regularization process, whichwill takes place under the aegis of the Ministry of Interior and the National Police.

The project proposes two solutions depending on the status of the persons concerned.

In the first case children born on Dominican territory of illegal alien parents who were registered in the register of State Civil Dominican irregularly with invalid documents (13.672 foreign Haitian exactly) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-9834-haiti-denationalization-audit-results-of-dominican-civil-state-registers.html will be able to acquire the nationality (the criteria are not known)...

In the second case the children born of illegal alien parents (between 1929 and 2007), which have never been recorded in the Register of Civil Status will be able to apply for naturalization (the criteria are not known)...

However, deplores the organizations of protection of human rights, this law will not address the situation of all children born to Haitian parents, in neighboring Republic and who have never been enrolled in the state civil registry, due to the illegal situation of heir parents [or absence of identification documents].

In addition, the Dominican Government gives 90 days after the enactment of the law, so that the children of the aliens concerned record their request. A period deemed insufficient by various organizations, who doubt the ability of the Dominican State to treat all applications in such short time.

On the other hand, the mechanisms and conditions to apply for naturalization, are not clearly identified and should be done before any request, say these organizations.

Finally, the lack of identification documents (Haitian), for many of our countrymen, whose children could be concerned by this law, risk to make the process more complicated, see make it insurmountable.

SL/ HaitiLibre