This week, Anghie Lee Gardy Petit of the Group of the Support to the Returnees and Refugees (GARR), deplored during a workshop of exchanges on the subject "Migration and civil status" the inaccessibility of the offices of the civil state and the lack of materials to provide adequate service, irresponsibility of the competent authorities and lack of awareness of the importance of civil status documents.

She also denounced the shortcomings of the Haitian civil registration system, which means that today several thousand Haitians in the country do not have access to their birth certificates, not to mention those living in the Dominican Republic who are confronted to the same situation and are unable to regularize their migratory situation in the neighboring Republic.

"According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) compiled in partnership with GARR and other organizations, out of a total of 162,452 people who crossed the border from June 2015 to December 2016 (deportees or voluntary return) 106,872 reported that they had no official identification document in their possession."

IH/ iciHaiti