13481: Joseph:(news) Haitians Dash from Stranded Boat to the Florida Shore (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dotie Joseph <dotiej@hotmail.com>

NY Times article:

As Cameras Roll, Haitians Dash From Stranded Boat to Florida Shore
By DANA CANEDY


MIAMI, Oct. 29 — About 200 Haitian refugees jumped off a stranded wooden
freighter this afternoon into the shallows off Key Biscayne, lunging through
chest-deep water in a scramble to evade the Coast Guard and the police and
to complete their desperate journey to Miami.

With news helicopters capturing them live on national television, dozens of
Haitians, many in their Sunday best, flooded onto a causeway leading to
Miami, about a mile away, as police officers converged. Many refugees tried
to jump into passing cars and pickup trucks, begging for rides.

Parents dropped children from the boat into the arms of other refugees and
rescue workers. A pregnant refugee was taken to the hospital, the police
said.

The boat arrived about 3:30 p.m. just off the Rickenbacker Causeway, which
links Miami to Key Biscayne, an affluent barrier island community. The Miami
police closed the causeway for about two hours, clogging rush-hour traffic
as they searched for refugees under a bridge and in bushes.

"A lot of them were trying to get off the bridge and use any vehicle at
their disposal to do so," said Delrish Moss, a police spokesman. "We will
never know how many got away."

At a makeshift command post, officials from the Immigration and
Naturalization Service processed dozens of detained Haitians, many wrapped
in yellow blankets. The refugees were put on buses and taken to detention
centers. Coast Guard representatives said that the Haitians were generally
in good health but that some suffered from dehydration. None were believed
to have drowned.

Petty Officer Anastasia Burns said the Coast Guard had two aircraft and 12
vessels trying to find refugees. "We're doing a search of the entire area to
make sure no people are left on the water that we may have missed," Petty
Officer Burns said. "We are conducting a search effort to make sure we've
rescued everyone. We have no reports of injuries or fatalities yet."

When asked how a boat full of Haitians could have come so close to shore
without being detected, a Coast Guard spokesman said the freighter was
typical of those that clog the shipping lanes off Miami, and thus did not
stand out the way an overcrowded passenger boat or raft might have.

One of Haitians, Yolette Baptiste, a woman with two children, said she had
paid someone to make the trip. "We were at sea for eight days," Ms. Baptiste
said in Creole just before a police officer ordered her onto a bus.

Witnesses described watching a heart-wrenching struggle for freedom. "It was
very frightening to see," said Mayra Vidal, 44, who lives on Key Biscayne
and was driving on the causeway when she spotted the boat. Ms. Vidal said
the children caught her attention, and one in particular "stuck out in my
mind."

"This little girl in a party dress with two bows in her hair," she said. "It
broke my heart. They dressed her up to celebrate."

Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women in Miami, a Haitian
advocacy group, described similar scenes. "The children that we saw were
shivering, cold and hungry," Ms. Bastien said.

In Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood, people took to the streets with signs
demanding that the detainees be allowed to remain in the United States.

That is unlikely. Under a Bush administrative directive that does not apply
to refugees of any other nationality, Haitians seeking political asylum are
held in detention centers pending the dispositions of their cases. All
others are to be returned to Haiti.

Civil rights advocates and a growing number of lawmakers from both parties
have criticized the policy as discriminatory. The immigrants' advocates said
that today's events were powerful evidence of just how dire life in Haiti
had become.

"Haitians will still risk their lives to make it here because things out
there are so bad," said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida
Immigrant Advocacy Center. "It's very difficult for them to apply for
political asylum, and it's very unfair. Fortunately, Cubans don't have to go
through that."

By United States law, Cubans picked up at sea are returned to their country,
but those who make it ashore are permitted to remain.

Immigration service officials did not return calls for comment today, but
the agency has long said that the policy of detaining the Haitians is
necessary to deter thousands from taking to sea in rickety rafts and
flooding South Florida, or dying en route.



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