18511: (Hermantin) Sun-Sentinel- Guantanamo refugee camp could be set up to handle Hait (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Guantanamo refugee camp could be set up to handle Haitian exodus

By Alva James-Johnson and Tal Abbady
Staff Writers
Posted February 12 2004

A refugee camp at Guantanamo Naval Station in Cuba could be set up to house
desperate Haitians if they hit the high seas to escape political turmoil, a
spokesman for U.S. Southern Command Headquarters said Wednesday.

"We feel confident that our lessons learned and contingency plans will
support mass migration from the Caribbean," said Raul Duany. "And if we're
called to support any sort of interdiction or migration operations, we will
be capable and supportive of such actions."

Duany stressed that the refugee camp was just one option the U.S. government
may consider, and SouthCom would wait for direction from other government
agencies.

"Whether we set up a refugee camp or repatriate those people back to Haiti
remains to be seen," he said. "We have a number of alternatives, and we
address each situation case by case."

But Trey Ditto, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., said a State
Department official told a delegation of South Florida congressmen and a
representative from Gov. Jeb Bush's office that SouthCom has already begun
military exercises to plan for a refugee crisis. He said the information was
given at a meeting with Mary Ellen Gilroy, director of the Office of
Caribbean Affairs, who assured the group that the National Security Council
was developing a contingency plan and Guantanamo Naval Station could
accommodate 15,000 to 20,000 refugees.

U.S. Reps. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, and Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, staff from
other Florida districts, and a representative from Bush's office also
attended the meeting, which was organized by Foley, Ditto said.

Foley said the group told Gilroy that the United States needs to do more to
help solve the crisis in Haiti. The congressmen recommended working more
closely with Caribbean nations and Canada, which has a large Haitian
population, to set up a police presence and other resources to stabilize the
situation.

"We wanted to show the administration that this is something that we don't
want to see spiral out of control," Foley said. "And we do not want to wait
for the first boat to set sail to take action. That will be too late."

In the past week, dozens have died in Haiti as cities have fallen prey to
anti-government rebels. The armed revolt started in Gonaïves, the
fourth-largest city, and has spread to other areas north of the capital.

Ditto said congressmen are concerned that the federal government isn't
including South Florida officials in the plans for a possible refugee
crisis.

"The contingency plan apparently does not involve anyone from Florida,
whether the governor's office or Florida Coast Guard," he said. "But once
these Haitians hit Florida shores, it becomes a Florida issue, and we need
to be involved as much as possible."

The State Department does seem, however, to be working with humanitarian
organizations to prepare for a possible wave of refugees. In December, State
Department officials invited a group of nongovernmental agencies to help
with the "contingency planning." The agencies were asked to provide
humanitarian services to refugees detained in Guantanamo Bay in the event of
mass migrations from Haiti, according to Melissa Winkler of the
International Rescue Committee in New York City.

Winkler said discussions were conducted between officials and organization
leaders about the logistics of running a refugee camp in Guantanamo. IRC
turned down the offer because the group is not operational in Haiti, Winkler
said.

Government officials confirmed only that a contingency plan is in place in
case of a mass migration from Haiti as well as other countries. The plan is
updated on an ongoing basis. Since the reorganization of federal immigration
agencies after Sept. 11, the Department of Homeland Security, the State
Department, the Coast Guard and other agencies work closely to implement the
plan, officials said.

"Guantanamo is there. It was used in the past, and it can be used in the
future, if needed," said State Department spokesman Steve Pike, referring to
the makeshift camps that housed thousands of Haitian refugees in the 1990s.
Pike said the camp could possibly be used to screen refugees for political
asylum in the event of a mass exodus, though he stressed that was a
hypothetical scenario.

When Aristide was deposed in a coup in 1991, more than 70,000 Haitians fled
the island, many headed for South Florida, in the three years of violence
that followed. Many of those who didn't drown were picked up by the Coast
Guard and detained at Guantanamo before they were returned to Haiti.

Federal officials said no imminent surge of refugees is expected as a result
of the most recent turmoil, based on an ongoing analysis of the crisis. They
would not comment further on that analysis or confirm that specific
discussions were conducted with humanitarian agencies.

"We don't expect a mass migration, but as always we have contingency plans
in place to deal with any unexpected situations," said Robert Zimmerman,
spokesman for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Coast Guard officials also said they had no information that large numbers
of refugees were planning to take to the seas.

"We've seen no indicators of that," said Coast Guard spokesman Tony Russell.
"We are continuously monitoring the situation."

Russell said the Coast Guard has increased its operations in the Mona
Passage, intercepting 1,600 migrants from the Dominican Republic on their
way to Puerto Rico in January, and continues to patrol the waters of the
Windward Passage, a narrow waterway between Haiti and Cuba where Coast Guard
cutters often thwart Haitian rafters. Under U.S. law, refugees from Haiti
are typically repatriated.

Refugee advocacy agencies in South Florida, meanwhile, expressed concern
about what the U.S. policy might be toward the refugees.

"I'm concerned that the United States will put together a plan to deter the
arrival of Haitians rather than protect them, which violates international
refugee law as well as our own U.S. asylum laws," said Wendy Young, director
of government relations at the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and
Children. "I think there is a big difference between a refugee camp and a
detention center, and in my mind Guantanamo is a detention center because
you're using it to prevent people from [going] where they want to go."

If the refugees remain in Guantanamo "at the very least they must be
provided with the same kind of refugee screening that they would receive if
allowed to arrive in Florida," she said. "That means a full hearing before
an objective decision-maker."

Alva James-Johnson can be reached at ajjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or
954-356-4523.      Email story
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