Batey communities in the Dominican Republic are company towns or neighborhoods where Haitian sugar cane workers and their families live.
Cutting sugarcanes is physically demanding and extremely low-paying work. An estimated 250,000 residents live in approximately 500 bateys. Most residents do not have access to drinking water, proper sanitation facilities, medical care, or education.
I spent 10 days in Barahona in the Dominican Republic documenting the life of those people. It is making me angry that this topic has been an issue since a long time, but there are no visible improvements. The companies continue to exploit the people, treating them almost like slaves. Here is a first selection of my pictures.
Barahona, Batey 3, March 2011.
The workers start early in the morning burning the canes and then cut until the end of the day.
Barahona, Batey 3, March 2011.
During the burning of the sugar cane, the particles in the air burn the eyes and infect skin lesions.
Barahona, Batey 3, March 2011.
Pierre is Haitian, 51 years old and has worked as a sugarcane cutter since he came to the Dominican Republic as a teenager. He is exhausted and his body hurts often, but he cannot think about stopping, since he would not get a pension.
Barahona, Batey 3, March 2011.
The workers start early in the morning burning the canes and then cut until the end of the day. The burned cane, easier to cut, is less well paid. Sometimes, the exhausted cutters get caught by the flames…
Barahona, Batey 3, March 2011. Once the cane has been cut it is loaded onto wagons and sent to be weighed.
Barahona, Batey 5, March 2011. A little girl next to the railways that are used for the transportation of the sugarcane.
Barahona, Batey 4, March 2011.
Mario is 12 years old. He was born in the Bateys. His family is very poor, so he has to help working in the fields. His family cannot even afford proper clothes or shoes for him to work in.
Barahona, Batey 4, March 2011.
Alexandro is 10 years old. He was born in the Bateys. His family is very poor, so he has to help working in the fields. He is crying after his mum hit him with a machete, because he didn’t do his work properly.
Barahona, Batey 5, March 2011.
Inside the home of Haitian workers. 6 people share one small room. There is no electricity, no clean water and poor sanitation facilities.
Keketo doesn’t know his age, but has spent more than half of his life in the bateys. Now he is too old to work and dement. He depends on his single child, who is also a sugar cane cutter, to support him.
Barahona, Batey 5, March 2011. Living conditions in Batey communities are very bad.
Barahona, Batey 4, March 2011. An old woman carrying water. There is no water in the houses in the Bateys.
Barahona, Batey Cucilla, March 2011. Suady Garcia is 16 years old and handicaped. His mum lives in Santo Domingo to make money to pay for his living. He lives with his aunt. His father left when he heart that his son is handicaped. He lays the whole day on the floor, cannot talk and depends on his aunt to feed him.
Barahona, Batey 4, March 2011.
Barahona, Batey 5, March 2011. Petit Louis is 60 years old and still works in the fields. Every morning he waits that a bus comes to pick him up. Sometimes the bus doesn’t come and all workers have to go back - a forced break without pay.
Barahona, Batey 3, March 2011.
The workers start early in the morning burning the canes and then cut until the end of the day.
Barahona, Batey 3, March 2011.
Michel Joseph is 37 years old. He worked every single day since he arrived from Haiti 2 years ago. He would like to go back, but the lack of jobs in his homecountry forces him to stay. Fifteen hours per day, the braceros suffer the hot sun combined with the heat of the burning sugar cane.
Barahona, Batey 5, March 2011. After work the workers go to the nearby river to wash themselves.
Barahona, Batey 5, March 2011. A sugar cane worker is waiting for the bus to come to drive him to the plantation. Sometimes the bus doesn’t come and all workers have to go back - a forced break without pay.