Dominican republic : slaves of the sugar cane | Reportage | Arte

Every year, four and a half million tourist spend a dream vacation in the Dominican Republic. Tourism brings in 3.7 billion dollars. The country can proudly boast a growth rate of 10%. 200,000 Dominicans live off tourism. But not all are that lucky. A few miles from the exotic beaches men are living under conditions from another age. They are immigrants from Haiti, the other part of the island. In the Dominican Republic they are subjected to a form of modern slavery on the vast sugar plantations. Cheap labor. But illegal, because these Haitians crossed the border secretly. Immigration rings are set up with the complicity of the customs and the police. The Haitians live in hiding with their family, in the middle of the sugar cane fields, crammed by the sugar companies into groups of huts called Bateys. These are unhealthy encampments, without drinking water or electricity. A part of the island banned to visitors; no tourist ventures there. There are estimated to be 500,000 Haitians in these villages, kept in semi-captivity. For a Batey is a sort of ghetto; the Haitians hardly ever go outside them.