Writing in Listin Diario today, Monday 29 September 2014, journalist Alfredo Freites speculates that the call for international help in providing Haitians with documentation will again go unheard. He estimates that seven million people in Haiti do not have legal documentation and commented that when President Danilo Medina appealed to the international community to help the people of Haiti get legal documentation during the 69th General Assembly, Haiti appeared to have two Presidents.
“An estimated seven million Haitians are living without official legal documents that identify them. They are men and women, children without a juridical status; they have no legal first or last name. They live there and request an identity here,” he writes.
He writes that for many it is easier and faster for the Dominican Republic to put aside legal procedures and distribute nationality like a godsend. “It would be to issue nationality to millions of citizens for charity, solidarity, as people from here and there are asking,” he writes.
He comments that what many are asking for is to put aside red tape. “Many think that it will have no implications, just use the name that anyone says they have and write up the birth certificate,” he writes. “As easy as that.”
http://www.listin.com.do/puntos-de-vista/2014/9/26/339172/Haiti-siete-millones-de-indocumentados