Country Report: Dominican Republic
Lured or abducted across the border, Haitians are enslaved on sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic, harvesting sugar bound for the United States
A Victim's Story
Solon Louis-Jean recalls his abduction into slavery in the Dominican sugar industry: "Five Dominican soldiers arrested me and my brother in Haiti. We walked for hours to Limon, where there was a depot with more than 50 Haitians waiting. The soldiers guarded us so that no one would leave. Then they took us by bus to two different bateyes. When we arrived some soldiers gave us machetes and told us to start cutting."
Sugar cane cutters in the Dominican Republic are overwhelmingly Haitians, who abducted or lured by armed guards onto sugar plantations, handed a machete, and forced to cut cane for below subsistence wages. The US buys over 15% of its sugar from the Dominican Republic. This is two-thirds of the Dominican Republic's yearly export.
Country Background
The Dominican Republic is a poor, densely populated country that occupies the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Fueled by the labor of Haitian workers, sugar is a prominent Dominican industry. Much of the sugar cane industry is government-owned - the largest company being the State Sugar Council (CEA) - though there is increasing privatization. In addition, undercurrents of racial prejudice and anti-Haitianism in the Dominican Republic reinforce a view of Haitian workers as inferior.
Causes of Slavery
Using slave labor to harvest sugar in Hispaniola goes back centuries. In the 1950s, state-sponsored forced labor was legitimized through an agreement between Haiti's dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier and the Dominican government. Until the fall of the Duvalier dynasty in 1986, the Dominican government paid Duvalier $2 million every year for the right to recruit up to 20,000 Haitian forced laborers to cut Dominican cane.
After succeeding Duvalier, President Aristide publicly opposed the "Contract," causing a shortage of cane cutters in the Dominican Republic. Desperate to maintain the production of the nation's main export, Dominican government officials resorted to an underground recruitment drive that resulted in widespread and coercive labor practices and forced more Haitians onto sugar plantations.
Process of Enslavement
Months before the sugar harvest begins in the Dominican Republic, government-contracted recruiters, known as buscones, round up Haitian workers on both sides of the border. Sometimes the Haitians are gathered by force, other times under false pretense of available work. Once across the border, Haitians are stripped of their clothes and identification and forced into crowded, filthy barracks at military posts. From there, they are driven in open trucks to the bateyes - work camps on the edge of sugar plantations. Cane cutters have no legal rights and no money. If they leave their batey, they will be picked up by the police and sent back to their batey or to jail.
Cane cutters are simply handed a machete and sent to work, harvesting cane for up to 14 hours each day. The cane leaves, which are covered with delicate but sharp needles cut the workers' hands and become permanently lodged under their skin. Workers sweating in the sun frequently lose control of their machetes and rip open a foot or hand, or slash off a toe or finger. Cane cutters work about two days out of three. The third day is spent loading ox-drawn carts which take the cane to weigh stations.
Seven or eight people are forced to live together in a space of only a few square feet. There is no electricity, water, toilets, schools, or health facilities. Cane cutters drink and wash from a trough in the batey and use the field around their barracks in lieu of a toilet. They sleep on metal cots with no mattress. The bateyes are often enclosed, isolated, and patrolled by guards, who commit random acts of violence, both physical and sexual. Those who might escape lack any documentation, and risk immediate deportation.
Cane cutters are not paid for the first three months of their "contracts." This amount is kept from them until the end of their contract. Since they were brought into the country illegally, many accept these conditions fearing arrest. Although the amount paid for a ton of cut sugar cane is 43 pesos ($3), cheating in the weighing process is common. Cane cutters are also commonly paid with tokens, even though it is illegal under the Dominican Republic Labor Code and violates the international conventions on forced labor. The tickets can be converted into cash but only at a 20% discount and coupons can only be used at the plantation shop, where prices are inflated.
Response on the Ground
One Respe ("Honor and Respect") and Cultural Center of Dominicans and Haitians (CCDH) are two organization promoting education and inter-racial reconciliation. Educating Haitians about the dangers of work on the batey is a common focus. Now a Haitian consul to the Dominican Republic, Pastor Edwin Paraison used to rescue enslaved children while visiting bateyes. Paraison would bring rum to guards, and then remove abducted children in rented cars and take them back to Haiti.
