US orders stop to Central Romana sugar exports

[Dolores]

Effective 23 November 2022, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel at all US ports of entry are ordered to detain raw sugar and sugar-based products produced in the Dominican Republic by Central Romana Corporation Limited (Central Romana), a US corporation.

A note from the CBP indicates that the Withhold Release Order (WRO) against Central Romana was issued based on information that reasonably indicates the use of forced labor in its operations. CBP identified five of the International Labour Organization’s 11 indicators of forced labor during its investigation: abuse of vulnerability, isolation, withholding of wages, abusive working and living conditions, and excessive overtime.

“This Withhold Release Order demonstrates CBP’s commitment to protect human rights and international labor standards and to promote a fair and competitive...

Continue reading...

 

[melphis]

The big question here is why did it take so long for these guys to discover this. All anyone had to do was drive by a sugar cane field to see the abuses.
What's next? DR rum, cigars, fruit. It will be interesting

 

[bob saunders]

The big question here is why did it take so long for these guys to discover this. All anyone had to do was drive by a sugar cane field to see the abuses.
What's next? DR rum, cigars, fruit. It will be interesting

So what abuse do you see when drive by a sugar cane field. Guys cutting and stacking sugar cane? Even according to the people putting the sanctions on, things are better than they used to be. The USA should clean up its own backyard first.

 

[melphis]

So what abuse do you see when drive by a sugar cane field. Guys cutting and stacking sugar cane? Even according to the people putting the sanctions on, things are better than they used to be. The USA should clean up its own backyard first.

I was referring to the absolute deplorable living conditions. But one man's castle is another man's shithole. Guess it depends on your standards.
No doubt the US has ghettos similar to this but that type of discussion is not permitted here

 

[Kipling333]

Let me explain the conditions of the sugar cane cutters as best as I can. They come here on a visa exemption because of a deal done by the sugar barons and the DR Government. They arrive with nothing. Their home is just one room about 12 x 12 with no kitchen and no bathroom and often only a dirt floor . There is no electricity and no running water although normally there is a tap for all rooms that are in rows. These are the worst of the bateys that are scattered around the huge area of the La Romana Central cane fields . To reach these small bateys normally you must take a dirt road that is used by heavy equipment and access is sometimes forbidden because everything is owned by la Romana Central. The area of la Romana Central extends from the Rio Soco all the way to the road between Higuey and Boca de Yuma and to the north it extends to el Seibo, it is easy to see on a map. So how do these poor people go to work or to seek medical assistance .. they must walk or sometimes they can find a motor bike .I seldom have seen these people in La Romana or Higuey and I have never seen the children at school. Sometimes charitable people try to leave clothes for them.
Going up the scale there are some bateys that you can see off the road between la Romana and El Seibo, These are made of wood and some have electricity and some do not and then further up the scale there are small towns or large bateys and there are regular gua guas running say from Guaymaral and La romana .. Even further up the scale there are rows and rows of what would be slums in any other country built for more senor and definitely Dominican employees. Why slums because the houses are so low and so close together that they become furnaces in summer. But the real offences to humanity are those relating to the cane cutters.
How can these poor workers escape their plight, it is nigh impossible because they have no money because the pay is so poor and they have no valid visa except to work in the cane fields for the sugar companies.
Maybe I should mention this back breaking work done in constant temperatures of over 100 degrees by people with mal nutrition. Maybe I should mention the total indifference by la Romana Central to the plight of these cane cutters or the fact that the Church turns a blind eye to all this.

 

[NanSanPedro]

Let me explain the conditions of the sugar cane cutters as best as I can. They come here on a visa exemption because of a deal done by the sugar barons and the DR Government. They arrive with nothing. Their home is just one room about 12 x 12 with no kitchen and no bathroom and often only a dirt floor . There is no electricity and no running water although normally there is a tap for all rooms that are in rows. These are the worst of the bateys that are scattered around the huge area of the La Romana Central cane fields . To reach these small bateys normally you must take a dirt road that is used by heavy equipment and access is sometimes forbidden because everything is owned by la Romana Central. The area of la Romana Central extends from the Rio Soco all the way to the road between Higuey and Boca de Yuma and to the north it extends to el Seibo, it is easy to see on a map. So how do these poor people go to work or to seek medical assistance .. they must walk or sometimes they can find a motor bike .I seldom have seen these people in La Romana or Higuey and I have never seen the children at school. Sometimes charitable people try to leave clothes for them.
Going up the scale there are some bateys that you can see off the road between la Romana and El Seibo, These are made of wood and some have electricity and some do not and then further up the scale there are small towns or large bateys and there are regular gua guas running say from Guaymaral and La romana .. Even further up the scale there are rows and rows of what would be slums in any other country built for more senor and definitely Dominican employees. Why slums because the houses are so low and so close together that they become furnaces in summer. But the real offences to humanity are those relating to the cane cutters.
How can these poor workers escape their plight, it is nigh impossible because they have no money because the pay is so poor and they have no valid visa except to work in the cane fields for the sugar companies.
Maybe I should mention this back breaking work done in constant temperatures of over 100 degrees by people with mal nutrition. Maybe I should mention the total indifference by la Romana Central to the plight of these cane cutters or the fact that the Church turns a blind eye to all this.

This is not 100% accurate. I have been in the bateys near La Romana and San Pedro. They have modest homes, but not hovels. They have electricity. They have med clinics. They have colmados. They have churches.

I have also seen what you have described, but only once. So yes, they exist but from what I can see they are far from universal. The US has worse slums with the homeless in NY, SF, and other cities.

 

[bob saunders]

http://centralromana.com.do/central...ric-bonuses-to-workers-and-employees/?lang=en I have read a lot of articles and watched a lot of videos on conditions in the Bateyes, and the living conditions are poor but seem no worse than the average poor Dominican in the Campo lives under. I have been in many campesinos dwellings. Last weekend I was in a poor coffee farm near Janico. No electricity, no running water, only an outhouse. People too poor to have sugar for the coffee, and they were white.

 

[Kipling333]

I can not fix the entire world but I can support action, to the best of my ability, that may improve the lives of the abused people that live in my general area. La Romana Central could fix the problem very easily at a cost of less than 1% of their income but they will not for reasons best known to them.

 

[Kipling333]

This is not 100% accurate. I have been in the bateys near La Romana and San Pedro. They have modest homes, but not hovels. They have electricity. They have med clinics. They have colmados. They have churches.

I have also seen what you have described, but only once. So yes, they exist but from what I can see they are far from universal. The US has worse slums with the homeless in NY, SF, and other cities.

I have mentioned these better bateys but if you could kindly read again you will see that I am describing the worst bateys and the life in these hovels.

 

[JD Jones]

One only has to make the trip to Los Llanos to see some of the worst ones. It looks almost surreal.

 

[bob saunders]

I guess the real question is can they seek employment else, or are they under contract to stay. If not, then there is no forced labour.

 

[malko]

Think things have improved tremendously in the last decade ?

 

[bob saunders]

Think things have improved tremendously in the last decade ?

yes

 

[cavok]

Long before anything is done to improve the conditions of these workers, they will be replaced by machinery that will be much more cost effective.

 

[Naked_Snake]

Long before anything is done to improve the conditions of these workers, they will be replaced by machinery that will be much more cost effective.

Rumor mill has it that they were in the process of doing so, but that the Obama admin told them to halt it when the earthquake happened, so as to not make the Haitian situation direr than it was with all those people that would have ended up unemployed had they gone ahead.

 

[Yourmaninvegas]

This is the news thread.
No comment from me.
Not allowed to comment.
But #5, #9 and #10 are great posts ‼️

 

[bob saunders]

This is the news thread.
No comment from me.
Not allowed to comment.
But #5, #9 and #10 are great posts ‼️

your opinion

 

[Yourmaninvegas]

your opinion

I disagree.
Post #5, Post #9 and #10 were not written by me.
They contained both facts and opinions.
None of them mine.

 

[Big]

some here have excellent creative writing skills.

 

[Kipling333]

I wonder why La Romana Central let this situation occur .They had plenty of warning that things were hotting up for them . For anyone who has regular dealings with this company in a major or minor way the reason is very obvious , they are totally arrogant . For many months in the year ,filthy black smoke hangs over most of La Romana emanating from their factory and although every one protests La Romana Central continues. Just outside Benerito , a small village near la Romana , the company burns garbage in the open and at night when the air is heavier the air is foul all foul all the way to La Romana .They refuse to stop. This attitude was obvious in their press release responding to the embargo . They are a law unto themselves in this province but I think that this time they have met their match and they will be forced into some form of backdown or will need to find new markets or maybe they will try some other tactic .