15710: (Chamberlain) Haiti pledges to stem migrant flow to US, Bahamas (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 28 (Reuters) - Haiti will increase coastal patrols
and arrest migrant traffickers to try to stop Haitians from leaving the
impoverished Caribbean nation for the United States and the Bahamas, its
foreign minister said on Wednesday.
     Haitian migrants escaping dire economic conditions in their homeland
on unseaworthy sail or motor boats frequently wash ashore or are stopped at
sea in the Bahamas and along the Florida coast.
     The U.S. Coast Guard has interdicted 484 Haitians at sea this year,
compared to 1,287 in all of 2002. The Bahamian government has handled
hundreds more who have been stopped at sea or arrived on shore. In most
cases, Haitian migrants who arrive illegally or are picked up at sea are
sent home.
     Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Philippe Antonio said on Radio
Metropole the government would take steps to keep Haitians in Haiti but
blamed a continuing dispute with international donors over the results of
tainted May 2000 parliamentary elections for the flow of migrants.
     "The economic sanctions adopted by the international community are
responsible for the increasing traffic," he said.
     Antonio said the campaign would include increased patrols along the
coast, the arrest of smugglers and a media campaign to urge Haitians to
stay home.
     Haiti has been gripped by political turmoil since elections officials
calculated the results of a handful of Senate seats to favor President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party three years ago.
     As a result, donor nations cut the flow of some $500 million in
desperately needed aid to the poorest country in the Americas. The vast
majority of Haiti's 8 million people live in grinding poverty and per
capita gross domestic product is less than $500 a year.