- Israel warns south Lebanon residents to 'not return'
- Sinner tames Machac to reach Shanghai Masters final
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
- China says will issue special bonds to boost ailing economy
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Dodgers drop Padres 2-0 to advance in MLB playoffs
- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
- Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes
- Trump demonizes migrants in dark, misleading speech
- X says 'alert' to manipulation efforts after pro-Russia bots report
- US, European markets rise before Boeing unveils sweeping job cuts
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Comoros shock Tunisia, Salah, Mbeumo strike in AFCON qualifiers
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Germany win in Nations League as 10-man Dutch rescue point
- Undav brace sends Germany to victory against Bosnia
- Israel says fired at 'threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- Ecuador's last mountain iceman dies at 80
- Milton leaves at least 16 dead, millions without power in Florida
- Senegal set to announce breakaway development agenda: PM
- UN says 2 peacekeepers wounded in south Lebanon explosions
- Injury-hit Australia thrash 'embarrassing' Pakistan at Women's T20 World Cup
- Internal TikTok documents show prioritization of traffic over well-being
- Israel says fired at 'immediate threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- New US coach Pochettino hails Pulisic but worries over workload
- Brazil orders closure of 2,000 betting sites
- UK govt urged to raise pro-democracy tycoon's case with China
- Sculptor Lalanne's animal creations sell for $59 mn
- From Tesla to Trump: Behind Musk's giant leap into politics
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- Supercharged hurricanes trigger 'perfect storm' for disinformation
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Djokovic proves staying power as he progresses to Shanghai semi-finals
- Sheffield Utd boss Wilder 'numb' after Baldock death
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- Fans immerse themselves in Marina Abramovic's first China exhibition
- Israel says conducting review after UN peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Djokovic 'overwhelmed' after 'greatest rival' Nadal's retirement
- Zelensky in Berlin says hopes war with Russia will end next year
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
Dying for a pension: Haitian workers forsaken in Dominican Republic
Ilek Santiago, born in Haiti, worked for decades in the cane fields of neighboring Dominican Republic, but he never qualified for nationality, a pension or medical care.
He died in March of untreated prostate cancer, aged 73, and his plight has become a rallying cry for cane field laborers who have long demanded access to basic benefits.
Most of the cane cultivation in the Dominican Republic is done by Haitians or their descendants who say they work 70-hour weeks for the equivalent of about $10 a day.
They all work illegally, a better option than none in poverty-riddled and gang violence-torn Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
Under a special dispensation, separate from Dominican citizens, Haitian workers contribute to a social welfare system in the hopes of benefiting from access to healthcare and a pension.
However, when they need it, many, like Santiago, have their applications denied.
"It is sad because comrade Santiago died without health insurance," said Jesus Nunez, leader of the UTC cane workers union, to which Santiago had also belonged.
With medical care, "comrade Santiago would have lasted a bit longer," Nunez told AFP at a memorial held by colleagues and loved ones in the zinc and cardboard house where he died.
The government did not respond to AFP's requests for comment.
- 'Living in misery' -
Haitian cane workers live in bateyes, precarious settlements of makeshift homes without electricity or potable water erected among the Dominican cane fields.
Santiago, who arrived in the country at age 17, lived in the eastern province of Monte Plata.
Two smiling photographs of him stand on a plastic table that serves as an improvised altar, with messages reading: Your family and friends will never forget you" and "Rest in peace."
Some who attended his memorial wore caps reading: "Without cane there is no sugar."
Fired up by Santiago's death, the UTC has called a demonstration for next month in the capital.
While about 3,700 cane workers have already qualified for pensions, some had theirs canceled without explanation.
"I am living in misery," one of them, Telmi Confidente, told AFP.
He arrived in the Dominican Republic in 1969, worked in the cane fields for decades, and had his pension abruptly canceled in 2014.
Confidente is too old to go back to work and lives on handouts from his children, saying without them "I would have dropped dead a long time ago."
- 'Forced labor' -
Despite a long history of Haitian labor, the issue of migrant rights is a controversial one in the Dominican Republic -- a much more prosperous country keen to shield itself from its troubled neighbor's many problems.
A 2013 Constitutional Court ruling stripped tens of thousands of Dominicans born to foreign parents -- mainly Haitians -- of their birthright citizenship.
The ruling was applied retroactively to all people born between 1929 and 2010, creating a "situation of statelessness of a magnitude never before seen in the Americas," according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Tens of thousands have since been expelled.
Dominican President Luis Abinader was re-elected this month to a second term in office, riding a wave of popularity based largely on his tough approach to Haitian migration.
Since taking office in 2020, Abinader's government has been building a 164-kilometer (102-mile) concrete wall along the border with Haiti.
The sugar cane industry, which notoriously relied on slave labor in the colonial-era, currently accounts for about two percent of GDP in the Dominican Republic, home to 11 million people.
Yet, the United States -- a key client -- last year restricted imports of Dominican sugar cane and its derivatives from a top Dominican producer for its use of "forced labor."
Th.Berger--AMWN