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#1676: Haitians await fate on U.S. Coast Guard cutters (fwd)
From:nozier@tradewind.net
WIRE:01/02/2000 16:29:00 ET
Haitians await fate on U.S. Coast Guard cutters
MIAMI (Reuters) - More than 400 illegal Haitian, Dominican and Chinese
migrants were aboard U.S. Coast Guard cutters anchored off of Miami
Sunday awaiting word whether they would be sent back to Haiti, the
Coast Guard said. The migrants were aboard a dangerously overloaded
60-foot ) freighter that ran aground off Miami's Key Biscayne Saturday
after trying to outrun a Coast Guard patrol. Most are Haitians but the
group included a few Dominicans and Chinese. Coast Guard spokesman Luis
Diaz said all 406 probably would be sent back to Haiti under a 1981
treaty between the United States and Haiti, which allows the
Coast Guard to intercept and return passengers trying to enter
the United States illegally aboard Haitian vessels. Two women
passengers were brought ashore for medicaltreatment, one suffering
complications from pregnancy and the other suffering convulsions and
high fever, Diaz said. The Coast Guard ferried Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS) agents out to the five cutters
Sunday to interview the migrants, Diaz said. But the treaty does not
require that they be interviewed to determine if they have grounds to
pursue political asylum in the United States. "They stay aboard the
cutters until INS or the State Department tells us differently. They
intend to repatriate them," Diaz said. An INS spokeswoman, Maria
Elena Garcia, said only that "The disposition of the migrants will
be determined upon completion of an investigation by the U.S. Coast
Guard." Thousands of Haitians have attempted the 600-mile voyage from
their impoverished Caribbean homeland to Florida, usually in
unseaworthy sailboats or small, leaky coastal freighters. Most are
considered to be fleeing poverty rather than political oppression and
are repatriated. It was the largest group of Haitians intercepted off
Florida in more than a year. The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted 363
Haitians at sea last year, compared to 1,206 in 1998.
Fearing the stranded boat would capsize, Coast Guard crews carefully
unloaded the migrants and took them aboard the cutters. "It's a very
large migrant case and luckily no one was injured," Diaz said.
Dozens of Haitians and blacks demonstrated peacefully outside the Coast
Guard base on Miami Beach Saturday, demanding that the migrants be
allowed to stay. Haitian-Americans have long protested against the
different treatment accorded Haitian and Cuban migrants trying to
reach Florida. While Haitians are usually sent back home immediately,
Cubans who manage to set foot on U.S. soil are generally allowed to
stay and are ultimately given permanent residency.