SANTO DOMINGO — The government has confiscated or annulled nearly 1,600 birth certificates belonging to residents of Haitian descent, a migrant advocacy group has charged.
A government official disputed anyone had been wrongly denied a birth certificate.
Sonia Adames, director of Jesuit Refugee and Migrant Services, told reporters the group's investigation found 72 percent of those affected are between 15 and 30 years old and have been unable to find a job, open a bank account or enroll in school as a result. She said 48 percent also have been unable to register their children as Dominican citizens.
Last year, the government amended the Caribbean country's constitution to deny citizenship to children born in the Dominican Republic to foreign parents.
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