15610: (Chamberlain) Bahamas fears growing influx of Haitian migrants (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     NASSAU, Bahamas, May 16 (Reuters) - More than 730 Haitian migrants
have poured into the Bahamas in small boats in the last five days and
Bahamian authorities said on Friday they feared the illegal influx would
grow as Haiti's economy worsens.
     Bahamian Immigration Minister Vincent Peet said most of the emigrants
were fleeing hunger and poverty in northern Haiti, and that Bahamian
resources had been stretched thin from the cost of processing and
repatriating them.
     "We are hoping that this can be contained, but based on what we see at
this stage there is no telling what the numbers could be," Peet said.
     The Bahamas, an archipelago of 700 islands and only 300,000 people,
stretch from just north of Haiti to just east of Florida.
     Peet said Bahamian immigration authorities were "very concerned" at
the influx and that the Haitian government must do more to stop illegal
migration.
     International aid to Haiti has stalled in the last three years because
of an election dispute and the nation's currency has lost over half its
value in 18 months, increasing the strain on the long impoverished nation.