Dominican Republic – The Haitians’ Status & Human Rights

Green Beads
Teenage girls are often forced into prostitution which is legal.
Photographer Theo Anderson is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this social documentary photography. From his project ‘Orphans‘. To see Theo’s body of work click on any image.
Human beings, of Haitian descent, living in or born in the Dominican Republic, are denied health care, education, a birth certificate and the most basic of human rights and dignity. Teenage girls are forced into prostitution. Children, when ill, receive their medicine from veterinarians, if at all. Our fellow human beings are stateless, citizens of no country.
The photographs were made in Bateyes (sugar workers’s towns) in and around Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.

Mother touching her young son
This child is denied citizenship because he is of Haitian heritage even though he was born in the Dominican Republic.

Father
Fathers spend limited time with their children. They work in tourist hotels and basic jobs if they are fortunate to find employment.

Pink dress
The young girl faces a future that included the possibility of being forced into prostitution as a teenager.

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Young boy inside his home in a Batey near Puerto Plata. Because he is of Haitian descent he must leave school after grade seven.
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