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9832: For Haitian migrants, hope is thicker than tragedies (fwd)
From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>
Published Monday, December 3, 2001
For Haitian migrants, hope is thicker than tragedies
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@herald.com
LES CAYES, Haiti -- Despite the disappearance of more than 200 Haitian
migrants who left in sailboats bound for Florida last month, dozens of
Haitians continue to make departure plans from southern coast towns, where
the hopeless and jobless wait in vain for change.
``Misery is killing us. Children can't eat; the people can't work, can't
function,'' said Selon Dieu, 39, who is what the Haitians call a ``boat
organizer'' -- someone who puts together trips to the United States.
Since 1991, Dieu has tried unsuccessfully to make it to Miami three times.
Each time, he got only as far as Cuba, which repatriated him.
Dieu said it's only a matter of time before he rounds up another group of
Haitians willing to make the trek to a better life, a working life -- in
Miami, where he also wants to settle. He says everyone chips in what they
can -- sometimes nothing, sometimes a few hundred dollars -- to pay for a
boat, which he'll either buy or have built. Officially, authorities believe
the 200-plus migrants who left from nearby Ile-a-Vache are dead -- that
their boats capsized during last month's Hurricane Michelle. There have been
no telephone calls to relatives either here or in the United States
announcing safe arrivals.
MANY QUESTIONS
But no bodies or ship wreckage have been found. There remain more questions
than answers surrounding the vessels: Exactly what day did they leave
Ile-a-Vache? How many people were on board and who were they? What really
happened?
Esperand Dominique, a regional director of social affairs for the Haitian
government, said he was initially told there was one boat, which left on
Nov. 1 with more than 150 people aboard. Then, he said, he learned of a
second boat with 63 aboard, which supposedly left Nov. 2. Hurricane Michelle
hit Cuba and the Bahamas a few days later.
Now, he said, interviews with the migrants' families, friends and others
have revealed that it was actually the boat with 63 people that left on Nov.
1. Then, some time after that -- he doesn't know when -- a second boat with
as many as 210 people followed.
The 63-person boat is described as about 30 feet long, painted red and
white; the second is about 40 feet long, and gray and black. The boats'
names aren't known.
Because passengers haven't been heard from, speculation and rumor have
fueled hope among some that the missing arrived safely in the Bahamas,
Jamaica, even Cuba. But checks with Bahamian and Jamaican government
officials have turned up negative so far.
``I can't tell you if they are dead or if they are alive. Only God knows,''
said Ghislaine Gary, 72, whose son, Clauzel Mesidor, 33, and daughter,
Francesse Mesidor, 21, are among the missing. They were on the 63-person
boat, captained by a man named ``Onel.''
Gary said she told Francesse not to go. ``But she saw her brother leave and
she left with him.'' Gary, a thin woman whose face reveals grief and worry,
knows too much time -- four weeks -- has gone by. But like dozens of people
here, she still hopes the passengers are alive somewhere -- anywhere.
Leonice Mesidor, 24, does not know what to think about the fate of her
missing siblings, who also include Francesse's half-brothers, Junior and
Reynold. Both are in their early 20s. They leave behind grieving parents,
children, diplomas of their accomplishments in French.
``The situation here is not good,'' Leonice Mesidor said in a timid voice, a
veil of sadness on her face. ``They can't eat. Their children can't go to
school. They left in search of a better life.''
REPATRIATIONS
This year alone, that search has led to the repatriation of thousands of
Haitians who have either been intercepted at sea by U.S. Coast Guard cutters
or washed up on shore in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Turks & Caicos. The Bahamas,
which has heightened surveillance around its waters with the help of
helicopters, has repatriated more than 6,000 Haitians, compared to 4,879
last year.
Dominique, the government official, said the people, especially the young,
are leaving for many reasons. A supporter of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, he points to the hundreds of millions of dollars in international
aid that have been frozen since the opposition alleged fraud in last year's
parliamentary election.
``The country has become so difficult,'' Dominique said, noting that even
hot school lunches have been cut off. ``They used to depend on the land they
toiled and wood they cut. Now, it gives them nothing.''
Dominique and others have warned people on the radio against the sea
voyages. Lies by boat organizers that the United States needs workers
because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are just that -- lies, he has
said.
``It goes in one ear, and comes out the other,'' Dominique said. ``They feel
it's better for them to risk traveling on the sea.''
Word from those who have successfully arrived also fuels the exodus. Esnoka
Jean-Louis said it persuaded his sister Rose Carmel Jean-Louis, 23, to leave
on the 63-person boat.
``I couldn't discourage her,'' he said of his sister, who was studying to be
a cosmetologist. ``If she reached, I didn't want her to hate me.''
Rose Carmel's father lives in Belle Glade. She was trying to enter the
United States legally, but grew impatient. Several years ago, her father
applied for U.S. residency status for his children. But on the day Rose
Carmel was supposed to receive her U.S. visa, she was disappointed. ``They
told her, `You turned 21 today, you are too old to go,' '' her brother
recalled.
FROM FAR AWAY
Many come from as far away as Cap Haitien on the north coast to leave from
the vicinity of Les Cayes, located about 94 miles southwest of
Port-au-Prince. Les Cayes is one of the greener and more serene parts of the
country.
Corn, plantains, oranges and other fruits and vegetables are bountiful. The
coastal community and its nearby fishing villages export lobster, conch,
shrimp and crab. Vetiver, the base for most of the perfume industry,
especially men's colognes, is also manufactured here.
Still, the people are poor. Many live on what little they make selling
secondhand clothing, handmade furnishings and toiletries imported from the
neighboring Dominican Republic. They sell them in makeshift flea markets or
out of their front doors.
`ONE REASON'
``The people leave only for one reason -- economics,'' said Pierre Léger, a
successful businessman who is building a nearby port and airport and employs
several hundred people in his perfume and propane manufacturing businesses.
``It's difficult to make the Haitian government -- from the 1900s to now --
see you need infrastructure. Without electricity, without water, without
wood, without a port and airport, you cannot develop a country like this
without that. . . . That's why people float and take the boat to another
place.''
Léger said the frozen aid is not what's killing the country, but a lack of
technical assistance and knowledge on how to ``fish for yourself.''
Families whose relatives have used boat organizers say those fleeing the
country have paid anywhere from $120 to $600 to make the journey. Once the
would-be migrants arrive here, they take a boat to Ile-a Vache, a rugged
island with a small tourist village where boat-building is common.
Pierre Maccen Dorval, the town's mayor, said the fact his island has become
popular with smugglers is not ``the fault of the people of Ile-a-Vache.''
More than 700 people left in sailboats for Florida from the town's coast
last month.
``Each boat that leaves Ile-a-Vache, if it has 100 people aboard, only 20
are from Ile-a-Vache,'' said Dorval, who knows some of the missing.
Dorval said he has no police on the island to halt the trips. Like many
government officials here, he's sympathetic to the people's plight.
``It's an uncontrollable situation,'' he said. ``I'm going to stand in front
of 700 people?''
Dorval said he cannot discourage fellow Haitians from leaving because when
he does an analysis of the country, he sees that it has reached critical
mass.
He compares the situation of people risking their lives with a child who has
to learn the hard way: ``When you have a child that plays with fire, you
have to allow it to play with fire until it learns not to.''
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