Dominicans of Haitian Descent Are Living in a Stateless Nightmare
BY
JACLYNN ASHLY
Brought to the Dominican Republic by the promise of jobs in the sugar fields, Haitian Dominicans have spent generations in a Kafkaesque trap of statelessness, enduring decades of exploitation and even government-sanctioned murder.
Dominican-born Victor Angel Oquel Depen holding a copy of his birth certificate issued by the Junta Central Electoral (JCE), the Dominican Republic’s central electoral committee that determines citizenship rights. (Photo courtesy of the author)
In 2012, Victor Angel Oquel Depen received a full scholarship to attend university to study agronomy. He hoped that having a degree would help him and his family access more opportunities outside the menial agricultural work that defines life in his community.
“I was really excited to move forward, get an education, and look for work that could help bring in more money,” says Depen, a father of six children. The forty-year-old lives in a batey — a sugar workers’ town — near the city of Tamayo in the southern Baoruco province of the Dominican Republic, close to the country’s border with Haiti.
The some five hundred bateyes in the country were built by sugar companies as temporary accommodations to house Haitian laborers. Known as braceros, these laborers arrived in the country over the last century to harvest sugar cane. They were promised fair wages, adequate housing, and pensions. Many, however, faced rampant abuse and were forced to work in abysmal conditions for little pay.
Over the years, the viejos — the permanently employed cane workers living on the bateyes — had children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. These temporary communities became permanent residences with the worst living conditions in the Dominican Republic. They lack access to clean water, electricity, and adequate housing.
More:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/08/dominican-republic-haitian-descent-stateless-nightmare-citizen-rights