14187: Chamberlain: U.S. Coast Guard repatriates Caribbean migrants (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     MIAMI, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated three
groups of migrants from Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic -- a total
of 59 people -- last weekend after intercepting them at sea, the Coast
Guard said on Monday.
     In the case of the Dominicans, the group had been abandoned at sea by
migrant smugglers, drifting in a broken-down small vessel in the Mona
Passage that separates the Dominican Republic from the U.S. Caribbean
territory of Puerto Rico. The Cubans were rescued from a sinking raft.
     The Coast Guard reiterated how dangerous migrant voyages from the
Caribbean can be.
     "Whether on poorly built and unseaworthy vessels-of-opportunity, or on
over-crowded and recklessly operated smuggling boats, the ultimate risk
remains the same -- the loss of one's life," Capt. Wayne Justice, chief of
law enforcement for the Seventh Coast Guard District, said in a statement.
     The 36 Haitians were found two miles (3 km) east of Hallandale Beach,
Fla., in the early hours of Friday on a 28-foot (8.40-metre) boat and
intercepted, bringing to more than 350 the number of Haitians caught at sea
by the Coast Guard since the start of November.
     Also on Friday, Coast Guard vessels rescued seven Cuban migrants from
a raft that was sinking south of Key Largo, Fla., and sent them home on
Sunday.
     In the third case, the Coast Guard rescued 16 Dominican migrants after
a Dominican Republic military aircraft spotted their vessel adrift 15 miles
(24 km) southwest of Mona Island, Puerto Rico on Saturday.
     According to the migrants on board the 17-foot (5.1 metre) vessel,
they had been at sea for five days. One day into the trip they experienced
mechanical difficulties and the two smugglers who had organized the voyage
called for help from a second vessel.
     When that boat arrived, the smugglers left and promised to come back.
But they never did, leaving their human cargo without any food or water to
drift out to sea for four days before being rescued, the Coast Guard said.
     The Coast Guard repatriates most illegal migrants it intercepts at
sea. But under a special provision, those Cubans who reach U.S. soil are
generally allowed to stay, but those picked up at sea are treated like
other illegal migrants and are sent home.