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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Dominican Republic
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Human Rights Watch World Report 1992
Americas Watch: Dominican Republic
</hdr>
<body>
<p>Human Rights Developments
</p>
<p> In three months, from June through September 1991, thousands
of Haitian citizens and Dominican citizens of Haitian origin
(so-called Dominico-Haitians) were forcibly expelled from the
Dominican Republic or fled in fear of summary expulsion. The
expulsions were the Dominican government's latest response to
mounting international pressure to end its dependence on forced
labor in its state sugar industry--an undisguised lashing out
at the victim. The expulsions began abruptly after the
Dominican government's forced labor practices became the focus
of a report by "Primetime Live," the U.S. television news
program, and of congressional hearings in the United States.
</p>
<p> The expulsions were deliberately cloaked in a humanitarian
facade. Decree No. 233-91, issued by President Joaquín
Balaguer, orders the repatriation of foreigners under age
sixteen and over age sixty who are working and living on
state-run and privately owned sugar-cane plantations. Those over
sixty are said to be entitled to receive all benefits owed under
Dominican law. The decree provides that the cost of repatriation
will be borne by the Dominican government, and that those
repatriated will be treated with the utmost respect. The
Department of Labor, with the cooperation of the secretaries of
the Armed Forces and Foreign Affairs, the National Police, and
the Department of Immigration, is directed to ensure compliance
with the decree.
</p>
<p> In fact, the expulsions were plagued by abuse. Workers whose
labor the Dominican Republic has accepted for years, or
decades, were torn from their communities and families and sent
across the Haitian border. Dominican soldiers, using force,
arbitrarily and indiscriminately rounded up Haitians,
Dominico-Haitians and anyone else deemed to "look" Haitian. Such
legal niceties as Dominican citizenship were dismissed;
identification documents were shredded or ignored. Despite the
pledge to pay benefits due, wages were often left unpaid. The
round-ups occurred not only on sugar plantations but throughout
the country, including construction sites and other enterprises
where Haitians live and work. The victims were not only the
young and the old but "Haitians" of all ages. Life-long
residents of the Dominican Republic were caught up in the
dragnet without any opportunity to arrange their affairs or
collect their belongings.
</p>
<p> Most of those expelled were denied the fair immigration
hearing that is due them under Dominican and international law.
Rather, they were simply advised of their imminent deportation,
without any attempt to determine their citizenship or immigrant
status. They were then bused across the border to Haiti, a
foreign country to many who speak Spanish as a first language
or have few if any remaining relatives there.
</p>
<p> Some six to seven thousand are believed to have been
forcibly deported as a result of this campaign. In addition, the
summary expulsions have engendered a climate of terror for
Haitians and Dominico-Haitians residing in the Dominican
Republic, leading thousands more--Haitian sources estimate up
to forty to fifty thousand--to flee the country.
</p>
<p> The expulsions took place against a background of continuing
reliance on forced labor to complete the state's sugarcane
harvest, at least through the end of the last harvest, which
was concluded in June and July. Cane cutters on Dominican
state-run sugar plantations are required to work extraordinarily
long hours under the searing sun. Most have no choice but to
share, with three to five others, small, dark rooms in
barracks-style housing, with no electricity, running water,
cooking facilities or latrines. For their arduous work, many
cane cutters are paid so little that they barely have enough to
provide one modest meal a day of rice and beans.
</p>
<p> Few Dominicans are willing to cut sugarcane under such
conditions. Instead, the Dominican plantations must rely on a
foreign labor force, predominantly from neighboring Haiti, to
cut cane each year. Although thousands of Haitians and
Dominico-Haitians perform the work willingly, this voluntary
workforce is insufficient to meet the Dominican government's
labor needs. Unwilling to offer the living and working
conditions necessary to attract a wholly voluntary workforce,
the Dominican government has filled this labor gap by using
deceptive and forced recruitment practices to bring Haitians to
state-owned sugarcane plantations, and forced confinement to
compel them to perform the difficult and dangerous work of
cutting sugarcane.
</p>
<p> Some recruits are falsely promised appealing work and good
wages by buscones (recruiters) who are paid by the sugarcane
plantations to lure Haitians to military posts in the Dominican
Republic. Other Haitians who attempt to enter the Dominican
Republic freely are stopped by border guards and taken into
custody. Once entrapped, the Haitians are forcibly transported
to the plantations where they are compelled to remain for the
duration of the harvest up to six or seven months. Those who
try to escape are often arrested and physically abused by
guards.
</p>
<p> After years of unconvincing attempts to deny and discredit
reports of its use of forced labor, the Dominican government in
October 1990 introduced a number of reforms that were welcomed
by the international community. Decree No. 417-90, issued by
President Balaguer, included instructions to regularize the
immigration status of all Haitians in the Dominican Republic;
to improve living conditions on the bateyes, where the cane
cutters live; and to provide all sugar workers with individual
work contracts specifying wages, hours and, notably, the right
to break the contract and seek work at another plantation or to
return to the worker's country of origin. Following the
announcement of the decree, the Secretary of Labor prohibited
the use of "intermediaries" to recruit workers and made
recommendations for an orderly and fair recruitment process.
</p>
<p> However, many of these announced reforms were not
implemented, and conditions of coercion persisted during the
1990-91 harvest. Moreover, in light of the 1991 repatriation
decree, it appears that the Dominican government has suspended
any attempt to regularize the immigration status of Haitians in
the Dominican Republic--one of the important promises of the
October 1990 decree.
</p>
<p>The Right to Monitor
</p>
<p> Dominicans generally enjoy the right to monitor human rights
in their country. For years, there has been great public
attention in the Dominican Republic to the issue of forced
labor, and in 1991, discussion about the deportations was widely
aired. However, many domestic human rights advocates have
traditionally proceeded with discretion, fearing reprisals from
Dominican authorities.
</p>
<p> An example of the need for caution can be found in the case
of Father Edwin Paraison of the Episcopal Anglican Church, a
leading advocate of the rights of Haitian and Dominico-Haitian
sugarcane cutters in the Dominican Republic. Father Paraison was
featured prominently in the report on child labor in the
Dominican sugar industry broadcast in May by the ABC-TV news
program "Primetime Live," and testified before the U.S. House
of Representatives in June. Thereafter he was the subject of
harsh criticism by the Dominican state-run television station,
and reportedly came under heavy surveillance by Dominican state
security forces.
</p>
<p> Previously, in 1988, Father Paraison had been summoned and
interrogated by the G-2 intelligence service of the Dominican
armed forces after complaining to the authorities that soldiers
were arresting Haitian cane-cutters and extorting money for
their release. Before that, in 1987, two Haitians who were
active in organizing Haitian workers, and with whom Father
Paraison worked c