The Bitter Truth Behind Sugar: Forced Migrant Labour in Central Romana’s Sugar Production

by Cristina Santos. MA Candidate, School of Labour Studies, McMaster University

August 2024

For workers who live in the bateyes of Central Romana, the largest sugar cane company in the Dominican Republic, it’s not just a settlement, it’s a home, albeit a company-owned shantytown that’s difficult to leave because for most of them, there’s nowhere to go.

The International Labour Organization (ILO), a specialized agency under the United Nations, defines forced labour as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily”. In the Dominican Republic, forced labour is deeply embedded in the sugar industry, harming Haitian migrant workers. Recently, Central Romana has come under significant scrutiny for its treatment of workers and its reliance on forced labour practices within its supply chain. Despite the corporations public commitment to social responsibility and sustainability, as stated on their website, it appears they aren’t as altruistic and generous in practice as they claim to be in writing.

The Dominican Republic’s Sugar Industry

Haitian migrant workers comprise the majority of cane cutters in the Dominican Republic’s sugarcane fields. Since the 1950s, agreements known as convenios were established between both countries “under which Haitian labourers were brought into the DR to work on sugar plantations for specific periods”. This temporary labour migration has given rise to a system of exploitation and forced labour practices in the Dominican, keen on taking advantage of the Haitian labour force to perform their most dirty and dangerous jobs.

Out of desperation, many Haitians, often undocumented, have crossed and continue to cross the border illegally to work in sugarcane fields. This creates an environment where various coercive tactics, such as the threat of forced eviction, deportation, wage theft, and debt bondage become much easier to implement. For decades, companies like Central Romana have exploited Haitians for a cheap and disposable labour force, perpetuating a cycle of increasing vulnerability amongst these workers.

Forced Labour of Haitian Migrant Workers Under Central Romana

Central Romana is a privately held corporation specializing in sugar production and livestock. It is the “largest landowner and largest private employer in the Dominican Republic”. Partially owned by the billionaire Fanjul family, the corporation has been accused of wielding significant power in the country’s political and economic spheres. “The company is the judiciary. They are the police. They are the ones who rule over everyone’s life”, commented a Spanish priest who witnessed firsthand the exploitative labour conditions faced by sugarcane workers. The Fanjul family’s close ties to political domains are evident, with former company president, Carlos Morales Troncoso, previously becoming Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Foreign Minister, and Ambassador to the United States. Such connections create a conflict of interest, which enhance the corporation’s political sway.

Furthermore, many Dominican-born Haitians are left stateless due to migration policies that perpetuate social divisions and reinforce their vulnerable position within Dominican society. Due to several legislative changes within the Dominican Constitution, many Dominican-born children of Haitian parents were slowly being robbed of their citizenship rights. The Constitutional Court ruling of 2013 (168-13) retroactively stripped citizenship from individuals born in the Dominican Republic to undocumented immigrant parents. Amnesty International states that this deprivation “disproportionately affects Dominicans of Haitian descent and is, therefore, discriminatory”. This restricts their access to formal labour markets and pushes these individuals to seek informal employment amidst undermining efforts to trace workers in Central Romana’s supply chain. To start combating forced labour practices present within Central Romana, there needs to be an overhaul to the Constitutional Court ruling of 2013 which can enable migrants to gain legal status.

United States Import Ban

The United States has banned the importation of goods made with forced labour since 1930, under the Tariff Act, section 370. An import ban is characterized as “a ban on the importation of certain products from a certain country into the home country”. Despite the long history of the ban on goods made with forced labour, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) only began enforcing it rigorously after the ‘domestic consumption exemption’ was lifted in 2015. In 2022, due to widespread activism and pressure on government agencies to investigate Central Romana, the corporation was flagged by the United States. During the investigation, five out of eleven of the ILOs indicators of forced labour were confirmed. These indicators included the abuse of vulnerability, isolation, withholding of wages, abusive working and living conditions, as well as excessive overtime. The CBP issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) banning the importation of sugar into the U.S. by Central Romana and allowing CBP to detain any shipment of goods coming from the corporation. Before the ban, Central Romana exported more than $100 million worth of products to the U.S. every year.

While embargoes like this aim to penalize companies that violate labour standards or fail to comply with federal laws, Section 307 of the Tariff Act faces several challenges if the goal is to help the workers who are subject to forced labour. These challenges include underenforcement due to insufficient funding, issues with identifying shipments made with forced labour, and lack of information about the situation on the ground and how a ban will impact workers. These drawbacks raise concerns about the effectiveness of the Tariff Act in protecting workers in situations of forced labour. Furthermore, cane cutters and labour rights advocates fear that the insertion of the Dominican government in the matter, along with their political power, may pressure the U.S. into dropping the ban prematurely, with only superficial changes being implemented. Activists and NGO initiatives must continue to champion for migrant workers and place pressure on governments to advocate for their labour rights.

Effectiveness of the Import Bans

Although the import ban on Central Romana was issued on November 23^rd, 2022, the Dominican Republic continued to hold the highest allocation of sugar imports in 2023 to the United States under reduced tariffs, despite the issuance of the WRO against Central Romana.  This suggests that the embargo is insufficient in addressing practices resulting in forced labour. Importers also do not have a legal or formal obligation to provide documentation that forced labour does not exist within their supply chains. Only when an WRO is issued does the importer have to establish compliance for the ban to be revoked. Moreover, the importer can decide to export the suspected goods to another country where such a ban is not in place. The onus should not be on CBP agencies to investigate and prove forced labour practices within import supply chains, but instead on the companies and corporations themselves. Since the WRO, Central Romana’s progress on remediation has been unimpressive, with no effective or sustainable remediation for workers. Central Romana is also continuing to lobby U.S. government officials in hopes of eliminating the ban without any substantive changes.

So, where do we go from here? Since labour and antitrafficking initiatives become highly consequential at a regulatory level, it is crucial that the Dominican government strengthen its employment and living standards, allow avenues for migrants to gain legal status, and place responsibility on companies and corporations to monitor and disclose their intermediaries and labour practices within their supply chains. It’s about time we start holding those responsible for the use of forced labour directly and legally accountable.