Worker deportations have almost completely drawn to a halt in the Dominican banana sector, according to local sources. Dominican agriculture, along with construction and tourism, depends on Haitian migrant labour, with around 80% of its banana plantation workers being of Haitian origin across the three producing regions of Montecristi, Azua and Mao Valverde.
In recent years, national migration policy has become increasingly hardline. In 2023, in response to a dispute over the use of a shared water source, the Dominican Republic closed the Haitian- Dominican border and all routes to documentation for Haitian migrants. As the security crisis in Haiti deepened, relations deteriorated. In October 2024 Dominican authorities publicly committed to deport 10,000 undocumented migrants per week. There were 276,215 Haitian migrants deported in 2024, and 379,553 in 2025 according to the Government Migration Directorate, representing an increase of 37.4%.
As a result of the closure of all routes to renew work or residency permits, increasing numbers of Haitian workers have found their documentation has expired, making their presence in the country as workers illegal and therefore vulnerable to deportation. Dominican banana workers union SINTRAPBAA has made many trips to negotiate for the release of workers from detention facilities in recent years, together with employers who depend on this migrant labour for their businesses to survive. The union works closely with migrant rights NGOs, pastors of the Haitian church as well as local and national business leaders, with the aim of establishing the conditions of labour security needed for the banana industry to prosper and for workers to live in dignity.
Photo: detention facilities along the border where workers are held before deportation to Haiti.
However, there are signs that diplomatic tensions between the neighbouring island nations may be thawing. After a two-year suspension, commercial passenger and cargo flights between Haiti and the Dominican Republic have resumed. And according to local sources, some limited routes to renewing work permits are now opening up, albeit very discreetly and in a context of continued anti-migrant rhetoric.
Crusito Torribio, General Secretary of the SINTRAPBAA trade union, commented:
“The banana sector, like other agricultural sectors in the country, relies on the efforts of migrants from our neighbouring country, Haiti, to remain productive and competitive in the international market. It is essential to ensure that this sector has the necessary labour resources. We call for migration control through the legal documentation of migrants working in our industries, and for the dignified and fair treatment of the workers who come to do this hard work in the Dominican countryside”.
