13554: Sunsentinel: Haitian migrants 'have nothing, thus 'nothing to lose' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Haitian migrants 'have nothing, thus 'nothing to lose'

By Sally Kestin and Tim Collie
Posted November 3 2002

Word comes with only a few hours notice that the journey to freedom will
soon begin.

With little more than the clothes on their backs, Haitian men, women and
children head to a designated rendezvous and cram into a Bahamian speedboat
for a potentially deadly trek to South Florida.


They pay smugglers up to $5,000 apiece -- a life's savings for most Haitians
-- for the hope of a better life in the United States. Some make it.

Others are caught and returned to their impoverished, politically wracked
homeland.

Some do not survive the trip.

A 50-foot boat that arrived last Tuesday off Key Biscayne, carrying 234
refugees, is becoming a hopeful symbol of escape from desperation.

"When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose," said Leatendore
Percentie, a Haitian and secretary of the Grand Bahama Human Rights
Association.

An elaborate network that extends from Haiti to the Bahamas to the United
States helps refugees leave the island. Friends and relatives send money for
the trips. Smugglers and middlemen, in the business of human cargo, carry
out the plan.

Those on board the boat arriving last week came directly from Haiti, a
rarity that is now giving hope to Haitians eager to journey directly to
Florida.

Before last week, most refugees leaving through smuggling operations entered
via the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas, an island chain known for lax
immigration enforcement and miles of coastline and hidden harbors that make
it easy to load and unload boat passengers undetected.

"The Bahamas is the highway to the U.S.," said Pastor Francis Joseph of the
First Haitian Community Church of God in Eight Mile Rock near Freeport.

Islanders in Haiti and Grand Bahama Island, a hub of smuggling migrants,
described how the trade works. Arrangements begin in Haiti.

In Cap Haitien, Haitians can choose among three major smuggling operations,
known by the nicknames of their leaders: Robert, Frantzie and Bouta.
Residents say the smugglers use "safe houses" to assemble passengers before
a trip, but carefully they do not point out exactly where they are.

The smuggling rings compete, even using "advertising gimmicks," said Dorcin
Jean-Baptiste, a local legislator and union leader in Cap Haitien.
Middlemen, or recruiters, find them passengers willing to go on boats built
specifically for the trips.

Recruiters cash in

For every 10 people they recruit, the middlemen receive the payments from
two recruits. If 10 people sign up at $3,000 a piece, the recruiter can earn
$6,000.

The going rate depends on the destination. Currently, the price ranges
$2,000 to $5,000, residents said.

"What I hear is that each person pays $3,000 -- that's the price that was
quoted to me," said Garno Desrosiers, a merchant in Port Margot, near Cap
Haitien. "But I have to tell you, living here, that seems kind of high. I
don't know where people would get that kind of money, unless relatives are
sending it to them.

"But even then, that's a lot of money for even Haitians working in the
United States. … That's why most people would go through a smuggling ring --
they have an established reputation for doing it right, as safe as you can
get doing this."

One of the Cap Haitien's leading boat builders pointed to a 150-foot boat he
was building and said it was going to take people to the Turks and Caicos.

"I just build these things. I don't ask how they're going to be used," said
the builder, 67. He spoke about his knowledge of smuggling on condition his
name not be used.

"I think more people are going to try it, get to the states, and maybe
that's what this boat is for," he said. "If I didn't have such a good job
building these boats, you can bet I'd be trying this myself."

Once at sea, the boats often head for the Exuma chain or Great Inagua
Island, the southernmost island in the Bahamas and the one closest to Haiti.
>From there, refugees typically take a boat or plane to Freeport or Nassau.
The details are prearranged.

"After they land, there's transportation and safe havens," Percentie said.
"It's very well organized. It can only work with the full participation of
persons in the Bahamas."

Some refugees stay in the islands for several months or years, working as
landscapers or janitors. Employers exploit the Haitians, often paying them
far less than the $4 an hour minimum wage, Percentie said.

"If you pay an illegal immigrant $1 or $2 an hour, they're not going to go
to the authorities to complain," he said. "You're dealing with a population
that is 90 percent illiterate, and many don't speak English."

While Bahamians predominantly speak English, the refugees speak Creole.

The refugees typically live in clapboard shanties about the size of a
bathroom in an American home. They save their money to pay the smugglers to
take them across the Gulf Stream to the shores of Florida.

The going rate is $3,000 to $5,000 per person, Percentie said. But one
Bahamian taxi driver said the price dropped to $1,500 recently because of
competition and fear of getting caught with increased patrols at sea
following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"They dread the trouble," said Fred McKenzie, 65, a native Bahamian on West
End, long a hub for smuggling because of its proximity to Florida. "They
aren't taking chances."

The U.S. Coast Guard's beefed up presence in the Bahamas and Florida has
deterred some smugglers, said Lt. Tony Russell, spokesman for the Coast
Guard in Miami.

The Coast Guard has intercepted 657 Haitians this year, compared with 1,956
last year. The Bahamas remains a favored waystation for Haitian refugees,
Russell said.

"All you have to do is look at a map," he said. "They're right on the route
from Haiti to the U.S."

Authorities and some Bahamians say that smuggling is on the decline, but
Percentie is not convinced. "It happens literally almost on a daily basis,"
he said.

The taxi driver said smugglers depart once every week or two.

Bahamian immigration officers do the best they can but have to rely on tips,
said J.T. Rolle, who heads up immigration on Grand Bahama Island.

"We don't know for sure when these things are going to happen," he said. "It
has to be members of the community seeing something suspicious and reporting
it."

About a month ago, authorities thwarted a smuggling operation taking about
20 Haitians from Bimini to Florida. They detained the refugees.

"Unfortunately, we were never able to catch the organizers," Rolle said.
"These operations are very secretive."

Refugees get help from Bahamians and Haitians, some of them prominent
citizens. Preachers have been linked to at least one smuggling operation and
own some of the safe houses in and around Freeport that are in deplorable
condition, Percentie said.

The government also may be complicit.

Several Bahamians said some immigration officers take bribes to allow
smuggling boats to pass or to issue a visa to allow the refugees legal entry
to the United States.

"Certain officials can be convinced to look the other way," Percentie said.

Grand Bahama Island provides ample departure points for boats carrying
illegal migrants.

Bootle Bay at West End offers a well covered canal with easy access to the
sea and a straight shot to Florida, about 70 miles away.

Throughout the island, canals hidden by walls of trees in desolate areas
make it easy to assemble groups of refugees without notice. Sometimes, the
boats pick up their passengers in smaller groups along the shoreline, giving
careful instructions on hiding behind sea rocks and trees.

`Voodoo hex'

The smugglers notify the refugees just before they are to leave and
typically depart around midnight to arrive off Florida's coast before dawn.

The trips can be deadly. In May, at least 14 Haitian refugees drowned when
their boat sank off the Bahamas. And in March 1999, 36 died as two boats
sank 30 miles east of Palm Beach County.

Haitians are still eager to make the voyage.

"They can't find no work, they can't find no job, they can't make no money,"
said John Philiph, 79, a Haitian who has lived in the Bahamas since 1963.

"They don't have no help from no place, no country."

Though the Haitians who arrived off Key Biscayne last week are being
detained with a slim chance of asylum, they have provided hope for other
islanders.

"There's even word going around that a voodoo hex was put on the Coast
Guard, that it blinded them to the boats," said Jean-Baptiste, the Cap
Haitien legislator. Smugglers are using the trip "as an advertisement, and
they're getting people excited. There are all kinds of rumors of other boats
either leaving or being built soon."

Authorities and many Bahamians dread the possibility of an exodus from
Haiti, worried that it will only encourage smuggling.

At the Lewis Yard Primary School in Pinder's Point, a Haitian settlement on
Grand Bahama Island, some children leave within a few months of enrolling in
school. Principal Sheila Scavella never knows whether they made it to
Florida safely.

"They want freedom and they lose their lives," she said. "It's so sad."

Staff Writer Tanya Weinberg contributed to this report.

Sally Kestin, who reported on this story from Freeport, the Bahamas, can be
reached at skestin@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4510.

Tim Collie reported from Chou Chou Beach, Haiti, and can be reached at
tcollie @sun-sentinel.com





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