The Court has noted that, in recent times, according to different estimates, the population of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent who live in the Dominican Republic is from 900,000 to 1.2 million. 121 158. The Court, in a previous judgment in a case the facts of which took place starting in June 2000, noted that many of the Haitians in the Dominican Republic “live in conditions of poverty [and] marginality resulting from their legal status and lack of opportunities.” 122 The Court has also noted that the United Nations Development Programme has indicated that the Haitians “live in very precarious conditions and extreme poverty.” 123 A.1.2. The alleged discriminatory concept in relation to Haitians and those of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic 159. During the public hearing in this case, the State indicated that “it cannot be thought that […] a country such as the Dominican Republic, […] 80% of whose population is of African descent, is a country that discriminates against its own ethnic origins […]; there is not a single piece of factual evidence that this kind of discrimination exists.” Nevertheless, the Dominican Republic presented information to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for the period from April 2008 to September 2011, and alleged that “the Dominican Republic inherited a culture with a history of slavery and racially discriminatory practices [… and that] the failure of a long line of Dominican generations, undocumented immigrants and workers hired from the rural areas of Haiti provided the labor force for the sugar harvest in the Dominican Republic and, in recent decades, dozens of thousands of Haitian men and women have taken on the most lowly jobs in other sectors of the Dominican economy.” He also indicated that “[t]here is no contradiction between […] a ‘tendency to return’ and the observation […] that most of the Haitians who live on the Dominican side of the border have lived there for many years and have put down roots. […] Even though most of the immigrants have tried to return to Haiti as soon as possible, over the years, a population of several hundreds of thousands has gradually accumulated on the Dominican side. […] Even though there is a significant flow of Haitians returning to Haiti, most of the emigrants who set up home in the Dominican Republic end up losing contact with their families in Haiti and seldom return.” (Cf. Testimony of Samuel Martínez in the case of the Yean and Bosico Girls v. Dominican Republic, on February 14, 2005. File of preliminary objections, merits and reparations, fs. 938 to 964). 121 Case of Nadege Dorzema et al. v. Dominican Republic. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of October 24, 2012, Series C No. 251, para. 39, and United Nations, National report submitted in accordance with paragraph 15 (a) of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, Dominican Republic, para. 6. The absence of official figures has been mentioned as one of the main problems to examine the phenomenon of discrimination in the Dominican Republic; various organizations have noted the absolute refusal of the Dominican Republic to accept that there is discrimination against the Haitian population and Dominicans of Haitian descent. The report of the Special Rapporteur and the independent expert indicates that the “the absence of a policy framework that expressly relates to people of African descent and the lack of disaggregated quantitative and qualitative data on the economic, social and political representation of Dominicans of African descent within society was considered as a major problem and a major challenge in combating racism and racial discrimination.” United Nations, Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diène, and the independent expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall, Mission to the Dominican Republic, A/HRC/7/19/Add.5 and A/HRC/7/23/Add.4, 18 March 2008, para. 35 (file of annexes to the Merits report, annex 45, fs. 421 to 456). In its 2007 report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Government of the Dominican Republic stated that approximately one million Haitians lived in the country (United Nations, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Ninth periodic report of the Dominican Republic to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/DOM/12, 8 June 2007, para. 3 (file of annexes to the motions and arguments brief, annex A04, fs. 3083 to 3090). Expert witness Samuel Martínez stated that the figure of “a million or more Haitians” in the Dominican Republic “could be considered plausible if all the children and grandchildren of Haitian citizens are included in the total for the ‘Haitian’ population” (testimony of Samuel Martínez in the case of the Yean and Bosico Girls v. Dominican Republic). Expert witness Núñez Asencio, citing a 2013 document: “First National Survey of Immigrants in the Dominican Republic” (SD, 2013, ONE, European Union, UNHCR, UN), indicated that “the Haitian population [in the Dominican Republic is] in excess of 668,144 persons” (expert opinion provided by Manuel Núñez Asencio by affidavit). 122 Case of Nadege Dorzema et al. v. Dominican Republic, para. 39. 123 Case of the Yean and Bosico Girls v. Dominican Republic, para. 109.3. 50