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Haitian Workers

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  • Ramon Amparo has worked 64 years in the sugar fields. For 45 of those years he has had a massive tumor growing on his leg. “When I talk about this, when I talk about my life, I feel a pain in my heart and I want to yell,” he says. Amparo is pictured in the fields surrounding Batey Punta Afuera, Dominican Republic on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015.<br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Bony Charles is a 66-year-old Haitian native who lived most of his life as an undocumented worker in the Dominican Republic. Over the past four decades, he has collected at least three sets of working papers with different names: Boni Chalas, Boni Chanel, and Boné Chalas. Here he is pictured in his home on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, in Batey Punta Afuera, Dominican Republic. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Ramon Amparo, 79, walks two hours to get to the post where he guards the pump that waters the sugar cane in the fields surrounding Batey Punta Afuera, Dominican Republic on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. He worked 58 years cutting cane for the State Sugar Council, CEA, a state entity, which ran the sugar mills where the majority of Haitian immigrants worked. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Thirteen years ago Bony Charles had an accident while on the job: his hands were smashed when he was connecting two carts that haul sugar cane. “I used to be clean and nice looking, but now it’s so hard.”<br />
Here he is pictured in his home on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, in Batey Punta Afuera, Dominican Republic. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Pictured here are the sugar cane fields surrounding Batey Punta Afuera, Dominican Republic on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Domingo Juan, 65, has been waiting four years for his pension. Juan lost his papers in Hurricane Georges and says he has no way of getting them straightened out. “Whoever doesn’t have money is imprisoned,” he says. Juan's neighbors have been taking care of him since his wife died in 2014. <br />
Here he is pictured in his home on Monday, Aug. 24, 2015 in Batey Monte Coca, Dominican Republic.<br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Cristobal Mawuche, 85, worked 40 years cutting cane. He stopped working in 1992 when he went blind.<br />
When he to the Dominican Republic from Haiti he was one of many in four trucks loaded with Haitians. “I was ashamed to go back without anything, so I stayed and kept working until I became this.”<br />
Here he is pictured on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015 in his home in Batey Botecito, Dominican Republic. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Idalina Bordignon, a lawyer, nun, and director of the Scalabriniana Association for the Service of Human Mobility, ASCALA, a local human rights organization that focuses on immigrant rights, helps clean the wound of sugar cane worker Alister Yan on Sunday Aug. 16, 2015 outside of Batey Don Juan, Dominican Republic. A piece of sugar cane pierced Yan's foot almost a year ago. The wound became massively infected but because Yan has yet to receive his pension he could not afford healthcare. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Cristobal Mawuche's neighbor, Crystal Hippolito, mops the floor in his home on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015 in Batey Botecito, Dominican Republic. Hippolito cleans his space every morning, brings him water, and occasionally brings him food. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Leonor Mesille counts out the beans for his next meal on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015 inside his home in Batey Punta Afuera, Dominican Republic. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • The various banana trees and avocado tree surrounding Leonor Mesille's home in Batey Punta Afuera, Dominican Republic, provide most of his sustenance. Pictured here is Mesille's bedroom on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015.<br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Batey Punta Afuera, which means far point, is just that: tucked within the sugar fields it is a 30-minute ride down a mostly dirt road to the closest town, Consuelo, Dominican Republic. That is a far distance for people who rarely own transport or can't afford to pay for a motorcycle taxi. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Louides Sanon, 90, has been waiting 29 years for his pension. He is pictured here sitting in his home in Batey Monte Coca, Dominican Republic on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015.<br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Ynocencio Yose, 86, has been waiting one year for his pension and has recently lost his sight. Here he is pictured in his home on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015 in Batey Monte Coca, Dominican Republic. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Luis Reminsente, 72, has been waiting four years for his pension. He also lost many of his papers during Hurricane Georges. The building pictured on Friday, Aug. 21, 2015 in Batey Monte Coca, Dominican Republic, is what is left of his home after the hurricane.<br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Jacques Cony, 80, waits to have his Urostomy bag replaced on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015 at Dr. Antonio Musa Regional Hospital in San Pedro de Macoris.<br />
Jacques has been waiting nine years for his pension. His son, Papucho Cony, 38, takes care of him and brings him to the hospital every two weeks. <br />
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Papucho spends about $20 a month in medicine and transportation to the hospital where they replace Jacques's Urostomy bag- a necessity after a work-related injury. “Here there are a lot of old people who die waiting for their pensions,” says Papucho, "As long as he is alive, we'll keep trying."     <br />
Dr. Antonio Musa Regional Hospital<br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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  • Over the past 19 years, Leonor Mesille has submitted the paperwork required on three separate occasions to collect a pension, which he says is owed to him for the 56 years he has paid into the social security system. Years of cutting cane have left Mesille with a hunched back.<br />
Here he is pictured on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015 outside his home in Batey Punta Afuera, Dominican Republic. <br />
(Michelle Kanaar/ For the Miami Herald)<br />
Publication Date: Oct. 21, 2015
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