History
Between 1937 and 1942, a Haitian passport and Haitian citizenship could be obtained without visiting the country. About 100 Eastern European Jews used this method to escape Europe. At about this time, United States officials became aware of a 'passports for sale' racket carried out with the complicity of the Haitian government. In return for a substantial loan from a Swiss bank, 100 genuine signed passports were made available for sale in Germany, reportedly for $3,000 each.
In 2011, the launch of biometric or epassports was announced.
Read more about this topic: Haitian Passport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It’s a very delicate surgical operation—to cut out the heart without killing the patient. The history of our country, however, is a very tough old patient, and we’ll do the best we can.”
—Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Sorel (Philip Merivale)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)