The ambassador of Haiti in the DR, Guy Lamothe told the Listín Diario that the Haitian Embassy in the DR is addressing the problem of undocumented Haitians living in the DR. He said that the Santo Domingo-based embassy has issued 30,000 birth certificates to Haitians residing in the DR since the program began in 1998 in response to requests from Dominican authorities. Less than 2,000 Haitians are legal residents of the Dominican Republic, while migration authorities and the Haitian Embassy concur there must be about 500,000 Haitians residing illegally in the DR. The Haitian Embassy was authorized to issue the birth certificates or consular letters where a photograph of the individual is featured and this serves as identification. Because of the extreme poverty in Haiti, most Haitians that cross the DR frontier at unofficial points do not have identification. This brings innumerable problems for the adults and also for their offspring. For instance, their children have trouble getting their titles from public schools as they have not been issued birth certificates. The Haitian Constitution recognizes as Haitians those born of Haitian parents through the third generation. The Dominican Constitution recognizes as Dominicans all born in the national territory except those born of parents that are here in transit. The illegal Haitians are considered "in transit."
