border, declaring that the ‘dividing line’ would put an end to “serious illegal immigration probvehicles”, as well as achieving “protection of territorial integrity… sought since independence.”12 While facilities were available for Haitian migrants to renew or change their status under opaque, services were centralised and affected persons had other priorities in a context of limited mobility given the health crisis. Moreover, there were some 200,000 spontaneous returns to Haiti during the pandemic in 2020. Sadly, the Dominican authorities restarted cross-border deportations of Haitians in late September after deportation events took place in 2020. Given the sluggish implementation of Law 169-14 for denationalised Dominicans of Haitian ancestry, intended for affected persons to regain Dominican documents, there is a danger of unwitting expulsions of stateless persons with the right to stay in ‘their own country’ where they were born. The very real dangers of this happening were demonstrated in the 2014 jurisprudence of the IACtHR.13 Political scapegoating rhetoric targeting Haitians is not uncommon in the Dominican Republic. They are blamed for many things including unemployment, social crises and diseases.14 RIGHT TO HEALTH Stateless persons in the Dominican Republic have access to basic healthcare services free of charge, however, most are uninsured and live in poverty which means they lack the resources to pay for any prescribed medicines or treatment out of pocket. Many report discriminatory attitudes of healthcare staff and having to wait to sexual and reproductive health services for women is hindered by nationalist, anti-Haitian rhetoric raising concerns about the cost to the state of providing service to ‘Haitian migrant’ women. This has led to a policy proposal of the Dominican Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to charge for services.15 In November 2020, President Luis Abinader claimed the Dominican health care system cannot sustain the cost of attending so many pregnant ‘Haitian’ women.16 In recent years, there have also been military and border security inspections of hospitals in the border region, searching for pregnant women who may be ‘illegally’ using servicCOVID-19 related abuse directed at migrants excluding undocumented persons from the national vaccine campaign17 is creating a hostile environment which is fostering vaccine hesitancy by those who may already have concerns about getting vaccinated. SOCIO-ECONOMIC RIGHTS Exclusion from Emergency Relief: Migrants and stateless persons lacking Dominican documents have been excluded from the expanded programmes of social protection operated during the pandemic, including a stimulus to mitigate the loss of earnings from businesses and individuals, especially to protect employment, state subsidies for formal workers (Programa ‘FASE I y II’) and informal workers (‘Quédate en Casa’ y ‘Pa’ Ti’). Inclusion in these measures depends on the documentation and legal status of the person or family member. Some of those who are ineligible, have received support from NGOs and international organisations. It appears that the government has shifted responsibility towards such groups and expects NGOs and international organisations to provide for them. Lost Livelihoods: Stateless persons were already in a precarious economic situation prior to the pandemic. The lockdown and curfew measures have impacted their livelihoods in several ways. There is less work available (carpentry, construction, transportation, domestic work), and those in informal work such as itinerant sales (lottery tickets, food) are not able to make a living as there is less money circulating in the community. Domestic workers were sent home temporarily. Salaries have been cut for some working in agriculture and selling lottery tickets, though they are expected to work the same number of hours. Many families are unable to buy basic provisions. Case Study Nadia,18 a 25-year-old stateless woman and mother of three stateless children, laments the exclusion of undocumented people from government programmes to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. Despite having registered for naturalisation following the passage of Law 169-14 in 2014 and receiving a regularisation card, the government has yet to deliver on its promise to naturalise over 7,000 stateless descendants of Haitian migrants. Their regularisation card is now expired, with unclear procedures in place for renewal or naturalisation as Dominican citizens. She states: - STATELESSNESS AND RIGHT TO NATIONALITY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Nationality and citizenship in the Dominican Republic are governed by the 2010 Constitution,19 the Migration Law 295-04 (2004),20 and the relevant constitutional case law. The descendants of Haitian migrants risk being made stateless due to nationality deprivation and denial. Professor, Brad K. Blitz, summarises the dual problem "…the problems of statelessness in the Dominican Republic are the result of both the denial and deprivation of citizenship and a deliberate lack of access – in this setting, requirements are imposed as a way to prevent access to nationality".21 nationality for Dominican-born descendants of migrants unless they were born to persons in transit. The former 1939 Migrant Law further stipulated that ‘in transit’ meant persons in the state for ten days or fewer. The current 2004 Miin transit’ in Article 18.3 of the 2010 Constitution, which states that children born to parents “residing illegally in the Dominican territory” are not entitled to nationality. THE CESF CONSORTIUM PROJECT who have been excluded from state relief, in order to better understand the evolving needs of the stateless community and develop appropriate longer-term engagement strategies for the DxD platform. DxD is a platform made up of civil society organisations with a long history of service in the Dominican Republic in human rights, education, health, sustainable development and strategic research and litigation. Notably since Sentence 168-14, this platform has helped Dominicans of Haitian descent advocate for social inclusion, community development and better working conditions as well as access to civil registration and the right to Dominican nationality. Under the project, DxD is working with 250 individuals and families who have been excluded from emergency aid in order to better understand their circumstance and to gather concrete evidence of their exclusion. Mapping the impact of disruptions to civil registration during the pandemic, in the context of the broader exclusions faced, the platform is interviewing 50 people. This project is contributing to a wider study mapping the impact of disruption to civil registries during the pandemic. To alleviate some economic burden, the platform has also granted loans to select stateless entrepreneurs to start small scale enterprises. The goal of this effort is to support their endeavours and to showcase their capacities, demystifying the claim that stateless people are a drain on the economy. This project is aiding key advocacy efforts with key demic relief measures. In particular, the project aims to engage with: • Junta Central Electoral (Central Electoral Board), which operates the Civil Registry in the Dominican Republic. While it has been undergoing important modernisation in recent years, some argue that this led to greater discrimination against children born to Haitian migrants. As of February 2021, the CEB has circulated draft legislation intended to improve the operation of the Civil Registry in the Dominican Republic.