13577: (Chamberlain, news item) Haiti-Migrants (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By JANE REGAN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov 5 (AP) -- Haitian migrants returned home Tuesday
after a desperate attempt to reach U.S. shores told terrifying tales of the
six-day journey on a rickety wooden boat that ended with Miami in sight but
out of reach.
   The hold of the 50-foot vessel began leaking soon after the journey
began Oct. 24.
   "The boat was listing a lot, and the hold was filling up with water,"
said Vicsone Charlo, 37, an unemployed father of four.
   Water and rice cooked aboard the boat ran out after three days, and
Charlo said he was so thirsty he drank his own urine.
   He was among 17 Haitians and two Dominicans repatriated by the U.S.
Coast Guard, the only ones who failed to reach land when the boat carrying
more than 225 Haitians and a few Dominicans ran aground off Miami last
week.
   With the Coast Guard in pursuit, the others jumped from the boat and
made a dramatic dash onto a highway, where they were detained. All are
awaiting asylum hearings except for six Haitians accused of organizing the
smuggling operation.
   The Coast Guard said Tuesday it was stepping up sea and air patrols in
response to a possible increase in the flow of illegal migrants from Haiti,
the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
   The migrants' trip began when the homemade vessel was launched from the
north-coast fishing village of Chouchou Bay.
   "I couldn't find work. I was so disappointed in life I decided to take
to the sea. I want my kids to grow up with decent lives," said Jasmin
Destin, a 29-year-old house painter with two children.
   The Coast Guard cutter Key Largo dropped the migrants at a dock outside
Port-au-Prince on Tuesday. A Dominican army officer took charge of the
Dominicans and the Haitian National Migration Office gave the Haitians
about $6.25 each for bus fare home.
   Many will be forced to make good on payments made to loan sharks for
passage on the boat, which averaged $1,000.
   Thousands of Haitians each year risk voyages aboard rickety, crowded
boats to try to escape the misery compounded by a political crisis that has
frozen aid to the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
   Some end up in the Turks and Caicos Islands, others in the Bahamas, and
some make it to Florida. Many are repatriated to Haiti, where two-thirds of
workers among the 8.2 million people are unemployed.
   Three out of five Haitians suffer from malnutrition, and a Haitian's
chances at birth of not living to 40 are nearly 32 percent, the United
Nations reported.
   The Haitian government blames much of the suffering on the international
community, which has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars because of
flawed 2000 elections.