They are “invisible Dominicans.” They were born, but they do not legally exist. They were born, but they have no rights. These are, according to the Diario Libre, the thousands of undocumented persons that, with no birth certificate, have little future. Neither do their children. A female who is not registered at birth, when she becomes a mother will not be able to register her children, either. While some elementary schools will admit them, they will not be admitted to high school. Worse, there are not accurate statistics on this. According to the Dominican Center for Consulting and Legal investigations (Cedail), there are entire communities in the southern part of the country where there are as many as 50,000 people with no birth certificates. Noria Hilario, a spokesperson for CEDAIL, said that up to the present, there has been no attempt to create a mass registration of the undocumented persons. CEDAIL works together with UNICEF and the Central Electoral Board, and so far, they have registered more than 40,000 people.
Most Dominicans are born in hospitals, but the government has been slow in implementing effective programs to issue birth certificates right at the hospital. At present, legal parents are given a month to register their children to avoid a long drawn out process that discourages the registration of the poorest.s