The plight of laborers in developing countries is difficult for those of us in the industrialized world to understand. Standards we have come to expect are lacking or otherwise abused, yet millions of people flock to low-paying jobs that Americans regard with disdain. But while the living wage may vary by country, protecting basic human rights must be a minimum standard.

As the documentary “The Price of Sugar” shows, the rights of sugarcane cutters on the Dominican Republic are not being upheld. Bill Haney’s film adroitly captures the plight of Haitian illegals working in Dominican sugarcane plantations, even if it occasionally misunderstands the larger situation.

Stocked with Haitian immigrants who have fled across the border in the hopes of finding a better life, Dominican sugarcane shantytowns, or bateyes, are inhospitable destinations for their stranded inhabitants. Stripped of their identification, the Haitians are forced to work 12-hour days, seven days a week. Given no access to health care and offered wages that fail to meet the cost of living, Haitian illegals are often kept on the sugar plantations by armed guards. If they attempt to flee, they are sometimes shot, but more frequently deported. Children born on the bateyes are not given Dominican citizenship.

Mr. Haney’s film follows the Spanish priest Christopher Hartley as he agitates for the Haitian cane cutters. Father Hartley has made it his life’s mission to ease the plight of the workers and suggested this film project to Mr. Haney as a way to raise awareness of the problem.

It should work. “The Price of Sugar” goes straight into the bateyes to observe the reality, and it is not pretty. Interspersed throughout the film are shots of children with distended bellies, contaminated sources of water, and other scenes of extreme poverty. It is all very moving, though repeated, ominous shots of sugar falling begin to lose their effect, and the lack of opposing voices leaves certain aspects of the debate unclear.

Most of this is because the wealthy Vicini family, which owns many of the plantations depicted in the film, refused to be interviewed for the film. The film also depicts all opponents of Father Hartley and the Haitians as motivated by racism.

While this may be oversimplifying the conflict, racism is a serious problem. Divided by a border, Haiti and the Dominican Republic share an uneasy history. A subset of nationalist pride has risen up against Father Hartley’s quest, blaming the Haitians for the bad conditions of native Dominicans.

Subsequently, Father Hartley’s work has been met with death threats and violence from industry sympathizers and nativists. While he has made progress in his mission — bringing health care workers to the bateyes, removing the armed guards from the plantations, and raising wages — there have been consequences. Haitians who agitate with him are fired and warned that the priest will not always be present to protect them. In fact, after shooting was completed on the film, Father Hartley was forced out of the country.

Mr. Haney has done a good job in following the plight of undocumented Haitians in the Dominican Republic, though he lays the blame more on the shoulders of globalization than on the real culprit. Without a well-established rule of law, this group of laborers is completely unprotected. As the priest says at one point, “In places where the rule of law does not exist, walls speak much more eloquently than signatures.”

Though it is hard to tell if the priest feels the sugar companies have a right to make a profit, Father Hartley has done a giant’s work, and drawn worldwide attention to his efforts in the process. With Paul Newman narrating, this film should help shine the light of day into the Dominican bateyes.

Haitians come to the Dominican Republic to find a better life, but they have been met with something closer to slavery. With conditions as dire as they are in Haiti, illegals continue to filter into the Dominican Republic as both nations struggle to address the endless discord between their clashing cultures.

But it is important to note that this is not simply capitalism unbound by government regulation — it is the result of deplorably negligent enforcement of basic human rights. If Mr. Haney’s film has gotten only one thing right, it is that drawing the world’s attention to the dilemma is the only way to fix the problem. As the sugar industry continues to dwindle, outrage from buyers may be the best way to improve conditions, and to prove that capitalism works.