"On the yellow bus rumbling through the Dominican Republic's sugarcane fields back to the settlement, Sainristil sat among the jolting bodies of other Haitian workers in ripped orange shirts. These journeys are routine always the same grumbling stomachs in anticipation of dinner, the same chatter among men who share a job, a home and a homeland. But that evening, as the workers' bus pulled into the cul-de-sac of communal housing, it came to a halt before two white buses marked with the words Migration control."
"They grabbed us like dogs, says Sainristil, referring to the 3 July raid in Construccion, where uniformed men bundled 11 of the workers into the vehicles so they could be deported. Construccion is a batey, one of the Dominican informal sugarcane settlements that have long been safe zones for Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent. But that is changing."
"Under pressure to meet a weekly deportation quota of 10,000, the Dominican Republic's general directorate of migration (DGM) is now pushing into bateyes. Raids are increasing, and even people born in the Dominican Republic with documents or not are being rounded up and deported, flagrantly disregarding laws, according to human rights organisations. Targeting Haitian immigrants became widespread during the second term of the Dominican president, Luis Abinader, whose government imposed the new quota in October 2024, when 15 measures to combat illegal immigration"
Workers on a bus returning to a Dominican batey were stopped and detained by migration control agents during a 3 July raid that bundled 11 Haitian sugarcane workers into vehicles for deportation. Bateyes historically served as informal safe zones for Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent, but migration enforcement is now penetrating these settlements. The Dominican general directorate of migration (DGM) established a weekly deportation quota of 10,000 and began pushing into bateyes. Raids have increased and authorities are detaining people born in the Dominican Republic, with or without documents. Nationalist sentiment and new government measures since October 2024 have intensified targeting of Haitians.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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