Table 2: Population Groups at Risk of Statelessness in the Dominican Republic, 2021
Profile
Number of people
Number of people who
have still not managed
to reacquire their
Dominican nationality
Group A
61,0494
26,1025
34,947
Group B
7,1476
7997
6,348
Group “B2”
9
23,700
0
23,700
Descendants of mixed couples, with one Dominican progenitor and the other of Haitian descent, without a birth
certificate from any country
25,64510
0
25,645
Total
117,541
26,901
90,640
8
In sum, the population at risk of statelessness in 2021
in the Dominican Republic is made up of various population groups. As can be seen in the table below, it is
estimated that approximately 90,640 people remain in
this condition.45678
Far from having resolved the statelessness crisis,
the timid implementation of Law 169-14 and indefinite deferral of decision on pending applications
threaten to deepen the crisis. Babies continue to be
born, and undocumented and/or stateless mothers will
not be able to obtain birth registration for them, perpetuating the intergenerational transmission of statelessness along the matrilineal line (Petrozziello 2019).
The National Immigrant Survey ENI-2017’s complementary study on descendants of immigrants in the DR
summarizes the situation as follows:
Source: JCE list, August 2020. It is important to mention that
there are people from Group A whose birth records have not yet
been audited by the JCE and, therefore, are not yet part of this
official list. Some people may also have died.
5.
Source: Statistic provided by the JCE as of August 2020.
6.
Source: Information published by the Ministry of the Interior
and Police (MIP) on the number of people approved. This figure
includes the 588 people reported to have completed their applications before September 30, 2019.
7.
Source: Decree No. 297-21 that grants ordinary Dominican naturalization to several foreigners. G. O. No. 11018 of April 30,
2021 and Decree 262-20 of July 2020.
8.
The categorization refers to the group of stateless people, with
the same profile as group B, who did not apply during the 180day period in which application was allowed in 2014 and 2015
4.
Number of people who
have managed to
reacquire their
Dominican nationality
Although Dominican laws are now clear regarding
the right or not to Dominican nationality of the descendants of immigrants, the social reality is different; and the possibility of a significant increase
in the number of children born and raised in the
Dominican Republic who will never have Dominican documentation because they are descendants
of parents with irregular immigration status is very
real (UNFPA 2018: 43, our translation from the
Spanish).910
In addition to violating the child’s right to a name and a
nationality, this prevents the country from meeting target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which
promises to “provide legal identity for all, including
birth registration.”
National Regularization Plan for Foreigners
Just as the lack of national documentation has a direct
impact on the assistance that people receive, so does
9.
Source: National Statistics Office, National Survey of Immigrants 2017 (ENI-2017). The survey estimated that the descendant population with both parents of Haitian origin, born in the
country before the entry into force of the Constitution on January 26, 2010, amounted to 86,769 people, of which more than
23,700 lack a birth certificate. Between 2015 and 2019, UNHCR
carried out a biometric registration exercise of the population
that had not applied under Law 169-14, managing to identify
some 11,100 people with this profile.
10.
Source: Statistical projections based on ENI-2017.
18 Research Brief: COVID-19 Impacts on Haitian Migrants and their Descendants on the Southern Border of the D.R.