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#1675: Activists protest likely repatriation of more than 400 migrants (fwd)
From:nozier@tradewind.net
WIRE:01/02/2000 15:00:00 ET
Activists protest likely repatriation of more than 400 migrants
MIAMI (AP) _ Haitian activists rallied for a second day in support of
scores of Haitian, Dominican and Chinese migrants who were taken into
custody after their wooden ship ran aground off the Florida
coast. The 406 would-be migrants were being held on Coast Guard ships
offshore Sunday pending their expected return to their homelands.
About 100 Haitian-Americans picketed the Coast Guard's Miami Beach
station Saturday to protest the repatriation policy. They returned
Sunday for a second rally and organizers said hundreds of people were
likely to attend. Demonstrators at Saturday's rally demanded that laws
be changed so Haitians are treated similar to Cubans, who generally
can remain in the United States if they reach shore. "We're going to
stay here as long as it takes _ until we hear that the Haitians are
brought to land and given the opportunity to seek political asylum,"
said Marlene Bastien, a member of the Haitian-American Grassroots
Coalition. "No matter how much you try to explain to people the
policy differences, people just don't accept it," said Gepsie
Metellus, who was born in Haiti and is now director of public affairs
for Miami-Dade County Commissioner Barbara Carey. "It's always so
painful when you know they are going to be sent back." The migrants
were found packed shoulder-to-shoulder on a 60-foot-long by
25-foot-wide wooden freighter that ran aground early Saturday.
The ship first appeared on the radar of the Coast Guard patrol boat
Farallon shortly before midnight Friday. It was running in the dark at
five to seven knots, and its crews ignored warnings by radio and
loudspeaker from the Farallon that it was headed toward shallow water.
"They were trying to tell them to turn or you'll hit the reef," said
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Andy Blomme. After the boat ran aground on a
sandbar, Coast Guard crews tossed life jackets on board and tried to
explain to the migrants that the wooden ship was not safe and that, no
matter what happened, they would not be allowed to enter the United
States, Blomme said. Fearing that any threatening move could provoke
the passengers to jump into the water, the Coast Guard crews waited
until dawn to persuade the migrants to leave the rickety ship. The
ship apparently had been at sea for at lease five days, and most of the
passengers were weary and dehydrated, authorities said. Two women _ one
five months pregnant and possibly injured by a fall during the trip,
and one who was suffering from a fever and convulsions _ were taken to
a hospital Saturday, Petty Officer Sean Connett Connett said. In 1999,
the Coast Guard rescued or turned back 363 Haitians and 406 Dominicans
trying to reach the United States.