2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(2) evidence. 122 After the application for registration, the Ministry of Interior and Police had a term of thirty days to process it without objection for the Central Electoral Board. 123 Following the registration in the Book of Foreign Nationals, the person had a term of sixty days in order to regularise his or her irregular migratory situation according to the National Regularisation Plan, established by the Decree No 327-13. 124 If this plan were implemented properly, it would have entailed an opportunity to reduce the risk of statelessness for the children of migrants born in the Dominican Republic. Had there been a level playing field, a large number of irregular migrants could have obtained residency documents. 125 However, even if the law provided a registration process for persons within Group B, most persons of Haitian descent falling in this category were not able to follow it. The reason behind the lack of registration in practice lies on the fact that, in reality, individuals were required to present more than one of the mentioned documents and even additional documents not provided by law, particularly an identity document of the mother. Likewise, the registration systems of public hospitals did not always provide live birth documentation, and regarding the birth certificates, they needed to be translated and sometimes even sealed. 126 In all, the law did not provide for automatic reacquisition of nationality for individuals who lost it due to Judgement 168-13 and who had it by 2010. 127 The naturalisation process instead treated them as aliens, not regarding their right to nationality due to their birth in the Dominican territory. 128 While the process for Group A took place immediately, the provisions for Group B became applicable later, and had 1 of February 2015 as deadline. Thus, the currently applicable relevant legal instruments for persons of Haitian descent (and any other candidate for naturalisation) are those prior to the special regime of Law No 169-14. In conclusion, the current citizenship regime of the Dominican Republic entails discrimination towards the biggest ethnic minority in the country: Haitian immigrants and their descendants. It essentially consists of obstacles placed by governmental authorities upon the process of acquiring nationality by individuals who were entitled to it under the constitutional framework that was in place at the time when they were born. The core problem for the exclusion of Dominicans of Haitian ancestry from Dominican nationality, as occurs in Myanmar and Assam, lays on the hostility towards the Haitian ‘other’ and their descendants, which has 122 Law No 169-14 (n 117) 123 ibid 124 Decree No 327-13, National Regularisation Plan for Foreigners in an Irregular Immigration 125 126 127 128 Situation in the Dominican Republic (29 November 2013) (Dominican Republic). Children born to foreign parents in an irregular migratory situation in the Dominican Republic, who regularised according to plan, could opt for the ordinary naturalisation. This could take place after two years since obtaining one of the migratory categories, meaning residents or nonresidents. The certification of lack of criminal records was necessary for it. This was an overall cumbersome procedure that most persons in Group B could not easily follow. Samuel Martínez and Bridget Wooding ‘El Antihaitianismo en la República Dominicana: ¿Un Giro Biopolítico’ (2017) 15(28) Zacatecas, Revista Migración y Desarrollo 95, 104 <http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/660/66053147004.pdf>. Wooding (n 82) 110 Dominican Republic — Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee: Comments on the Follow-Up State Party’s Report of 24 August 2015 (Report, Amnesty International 2015) 6 <https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AMR2729782015ENGLISH.pdf>. Case of Expelled Dominicans and Haitians v Dominican Republic (Judgment) (InterAmerican Court on Human Rights, Series C No 282, 28 August 2014) [105]. 212