16122: (Hermantin) Sun-Sentinel-Migrants take a new tack (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Migrants take a new tack


By Carol J. Williams
foreign correspondent

July 10, 2003

LEOGANE, Haiti · Scrawny from hunger and weathered by years in the sun,
Antoine Mimi still hammers away on half a dozen wooden boats whose buyers
have run out of money -- but not out of hope of escaping Haiti.

The chances of successfully navigating the 700-mile route to Florida are as
slim as ever. People who manage to evade sharks and smugglers face almost
certain deportation when they get to the United States.

Since November, the U.S. Justice Department has been invoking "expedited
removal proceedings" against Haitians who arrive without visas. Such
handling allows authorities to jail and deport asylum seekers on the grounds
that to do otherwise might encourage a mass exodus that would divert the
attention and resources of the U.S. Coast Guard from its primary mission of
guarding against terrorism.

The policy largely has succeeded in dissuading Haitians from taking the
traditional route of arriving and seeking asylum through the courts. They
can be sent back now without so much as a court hearing.

But it has done little to stem the outflow of desperate people. They have
simply changed their routes and tactics. Instead of setting off for Florida,
the same untold thousands now take to the seas headed for the Bahamas.

"People still want to go to America, but they realize they are risking their
lives for nothing," said Mimi, 65, who wishes that he, too, had left when
his health and chances of making a new life abroad were better.

"They don't mind being put in jail, but if they are going to be sent back
here there's no point in trying," he said.

Instead, he and others who build crude boats on contract say Haitians bent
on escape are pursuing a two-stage process: first to the Bahamas in whatever
craft is at hand, then sneaking into the United States a few months later
with assistance from relatives and professional smugglers.

Stopping in the Bahamas, which is closer to U.S. shores, gives Haitians a
chance to find work and earn money, contact relatives who are in the United
States and find more seaworthy vessels for the rest of the trip.

Coast Guard authorities in the Bahamas intercepted more than 4,200 Haitians
last year, a 50 percent increase over 2001. Officials in the capital,
Nassau, have complained that the numbers are skyrocketing this year and
straining social services.

Thousands more escape overland to the Dominican Republic, where a marginally
better economy offers some prospect of employment. But as with the Bahamas,
the outflow is straining relations with an important neighbor and saddling a
weak economy with social burdens previously borne by the affluent United
States.

The U.S. ambassador to Haiti, Brian Dean Curran, acknowledges that Haitians
are not treated the same as Cuban asylum seekers, who may stay in the United
States if they reach its soil.

"Yes, we have a double standard, but it's legislated," Curran said,
referring to the congressional actions that define fleeing Cubans as victims
of communist repression. Even on a humanitarian level, Curran said, U.S.
policy must be one of unwavering dissuasion.

"If we changed policy and were perceived as being more open, that would send
the wrong signal," he said. "Take that to its logical extreme -- are we
going to open our borders to the whole country? Because opinion polls
suggest about 80 percent would leave."

Some opposition political figures in Port-au-Prince say they understand the
tough U.S. position and blame the government of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide for steering this country more deeply into despair.

"It's not just the poor who are fleeing. Everyone with money, education or
skills wants to leave," said former President Leslie Manigat. "People don't
have faith in the future of this country."

Carol J. Williams writes for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Co. newspaper.

_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus