19284: (Chamberlain) US Coast Guard holding 500 Haitian migrants at sea (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Frances Kerry

    MIAMI, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard is holding some 500
Haitian migrants on cutters at sea, the agency said on Thursday, in the
first sign that large numbers of Haitians are trying to flee the turmoil in
the Caribbean country.
     FBI and immigration authorities were also investigating whether a
freighter intercepted by the Coast Guard on Wednesday off Miami was
possibly hijacked by some of the 21 Haitians on board.
     Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz said the agency was holding about 500
migrants on cutters in the Windward Pass, the stretch of sea northwest of
Haiti where boat people would start out on the 600-mile (970-km) journey
toward Florida. Diaz declined to give further details.
     Since an armed revolt against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide flared
in Haiti on Feb. 5, the Coast Guard has been monitoring the Windward Pass,
but up until now the agency had not reported an unusual number of migrants.
     Investigators were interviewing the crew and passengers on board a
Panamanian-registered freighter, Margot, that the Coast Guard intercepted
on Wednesday evening about 7 miles (11 km) off Miami after being alerted by
the captain of a "security situation."
     Those on board included seven crew members, thought to be Filipinos,
and 21 Haitians. Four of the Haitians were authorized to be on board and
the status of the other 17 was not yet determined, another Coast Guard
spokesman said.
     Four shotguns and a handgun were handed over to the authorities before
they boarded the vessel.
     The vessel last called at the western Haitian port of Gonaives, the
city where the uprising against Aristide began.
     The United States has been anxious to prevent a repeat of the exodus
of the early 1990s, when tens of thousands of Haitians fleeing political
turmoil set out in boats to try to reach Florida.
     Aristide warned earlier this week that a further advance by the
rebels, who control a large part of the north of the country, could trigger
an exodus of boat people.
      U.S. President George W. Bush reiterated Washington's stance that
Haitians should not try to flee to the United States and the Coast Guard
would turn back those caught at sea.
     An unstated concern of the Bush administration is to avoid the Haiti
turmoil spilling over into a migrant crisis in Florida just months before
Bush runs for re-election in November.
     The president won the state by a razor-thin margin in 2000.
     Bush's younger brother, Jeb Bush, is Florida's governor and he
described Wednesday's incident off Miami as a hijacking .
     "They should be sent back to Haiti. They hijacked a boat," Jeb Bush.
"Unless they have a well-founded fear of persecution that is specific and
meets the criteria of our laws, they should be sent back."
     But Kendrick Meek, a U.S. congressman from south Florida whose
district includes many Haitian Americans, protested the policy of sending
Haitians back automatically.
     Haitians caught at sea should be interviewed to determine if they have
a credible fear of persecution and if they do, should be allowed to apply
for political asylum, he said.

  (Additional reporting by Michael Peltier in Tallahassee)