"Watchdog calls for US import ban as forced labor persists in Dominican sugarcane fields", 18 August 2026

...A report released Tuesday by a human rights group found that forced labor persists on massive sugarcane plantations across the Dominican Republic, which exports sugar and other products to the U.S. — its largest market.

The nonprofit Corporate Accountability Lab said it spent more than three years investigating the working conditions on plantations owned by Central Romana Corporation, Ltd., the largest employer and landowner in the Dominican Republic. Its owners have ties to U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the report noted...

The human rights group called on the U.S. government to reinstate the ban...

Local civil society groups estimate that up to 8,000 workers toil in the company’s sugarcane fields...

They have long complained about a lack of wages and of being forced to live in cramped housing that often lacks water or electricity, as verified by Associated Press journalists in recent years. Many of them are Haitian migrants or descendants of them, who, despite being born in the Dominican Republic, do not have citizenship...

The company did not immediately respond to a request seeking additional comment.

Corporate Accountability Lab called on the Dominican government to regularize the immigration status of all those recruited to work on sugarcane fields, to disburse owed pensions and enforce labor and environmental laws...