Batey (sugar workers' town)

They are located close to cane fields so that groups of workers can live nearby their labor site.

The migrants are lodged in rooms at the batey, sometimes with no facilities, and expected to work cropping sugar cane in long days with hard hours.

It was often left to the State Sugar Council (CEA: Consejo Estatal de Azúcar) or private companies to provide basic services, a responsibility that all too often they did not fulfill.

Since the Haitians who originally filled the bateys were not legal immigrants, their children have often been denied citizenship papers because they are considered to have been born while in transit.

The Batey is a modern form of slavery where Haitians are paid less than $2.00 American dollars for 12–14 hours of labor.