Above: Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina said Tuesday that he was requesting Haiti’s cooperation on the issue of documentation for citizens.

Citizenship and migration have been issues of major discored between the two neighbours on Hispaniola, both from migration over the years and a Dominican court decision last year that effectively stripped as many as hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent of their citizenship.

Last month, the Dominican Republic unveiled new legislation addressing that issue, establishing special rules to apply for citizenship for those born to migrants in the Dominican Republic.

“The two countries have to participate and make an effort,” Medina said. “I know that in Haiti there are problems with the documentation of people, but I also know that the government of Venezuela is working with them in the erection of a civil registry for people and what we want is that they collaborate so that we can start this process.”

Last year, following talks with Haiti President Michel Martelly, Medina offered to support a process launched by the Haitian government to provide identity documents for the country’s nationals.

Medina was addressing the issue during briefing with reporters. He referred to a call made by Dominican Interior Minister Jose Ramon Fadul, who had urged Haiti to participate in the country’s recently-promulgated National Plan of Regularization.