Haitian migrant workers make up the majority of the cane labour in the Dominican Republic. Men work 10 hours a day or more, cutting cane under hot sun. Skin is often cut by the tall grass of the cane, or worse, the machetes. Workers earn the equivalent of $2.50 a day, and receive one meal.
Communities of migrant workers, known as bateyes, spring up within the cane fields. They are far from the rest of civilization, and become home for those who venture across the border. Most will never return to Haiti.
stacked cane
cane cutter
long days in the field
25 years in the bateyes.
