Statelessness and the impact of the pandemic in the Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, more than 130,000 people of Haitian descent are currently living without a nationality, after a 2013 court ruling left them stateless. They have been stripped of basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and social protection. Now, the pandemic, which has had a sweeping effect throughout the whole country, has hit the stateless communities the hardest.
Bridget Wooding, Coordinator of the Caribbean Migration and Development Observatory (OBMICA) reveals more about the history of statelessness in the Dominican Republic and the new challenges people without a nationality have had to face since the outbreak of the virus began.