PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – Haiti’s Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Idalbert Pierre Jean, has welcomed the recent decision made by the Dominican government to extend for one year, the temporary migrant regularization card for over 140,000 Haitians.

According to Jean, the authorities in the neighbouring country, took into account the difficulties being experienced by Haitians to complete the required documents – this included obtaining passports.

“This is very good news, honestly, we’re going to work, both the Government of Haiti and the Embassy for all Haitian immigrants, included in this group of 143,000 to complete their documentation.

Concerning the delay in the delivery of passports, the Ambassador said the document is not produced in Haiti.

“The difficulty is t hat we do not produce the passports in Haiti, the production of booklets and forms are imported.”

He admitted that Haiti often neglects the Diaspora in the neighbouring Republic but said steps are being taken to resolve the issue.

Haiti has been struggling to meet the demand of passports, however, earlier this year Minister of Interior and Territorial Communities; François Anick Joseph said that in order to cope with the explosion in the application of passports, production was increased from 800 per day to 1,500.

Last week Interior and Police Minister Jose Ramon Fadul in the Dominican Republic said a proposal from the Immigration Agency was presented to president Danilo Medina, who agreed to the extension.

He said the measure saves the government additional expense while continuing to regularize foreigners, mostly of Haitian nationality.

The announcement follows a recent demonstration in which a group of Haitians protested in front of the Haitian embassy in the Dominican Republic, stating that they were unable to complete papers needed for provisional permits due to the lack of passports from Haiti.

Last year, the government issued residency permits to 184,000 Haitians who could prove they had been living in the country before October 2011.

Officials have warned that anyone without legal residency could face deportation.