19463: LemieuxBBC: Miami's Haitians watch trouble at home (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3496740.stm

Published: 2004/02/29 01:04:16 GMT
Miami's Haitians watch trouble at home
By Daniel Lak
BBC Miami correspondent

As the situation in Haiti slides further into chaos,
concerns have been expressed about the plight of the
Haitian people and UN officials have urged countries in the
region to take in refugees trying to escape. Our
correspondent met some of the Haitians who, over the years,
have managed to flee and make a life for themselves in
Miami.


A mournful ballad plays outside the Fasydik grocery store
and movie rental shop in Miami's Little Haiti.

Signs in Haitian Creole advertise Barbancourt rum and
telephone cards offering discount calls to the Caribbean.

Behind the cash register, Celine Paul says business is
brisk, especially for the phone cards.

"When its hellish at home, everyone wants to call," she
says, "and the news is never good. Especially not now."

The grocery store is a block away from Radio Carnivale,
Little Haiti's favourite radio station. The telephones in
the newsroom ring constantly, says reporter, Jacques
Castinguay.

"We monitor all the Haitian media," he says, "and then we
broadcast the news but people can't wait for our news
bulletins. It's hard to get any work done."

Miami is home to an estimated 230,000 Haitians. There are
among the city's poorest residents and an array of activist
groups and service organisations has sprung up to help
them.

Hard life

It's never been easy for Haitians to live in the United
States, says Marleine Bastien of the Haitian Women's
Association of Miami.

"We suffer from racism because we're black and because
neither English nor Spanish are our first language." she
says.

"There's constant talk of hundreds of thousands of our
people fleeing here if things get bad in Haiti. And this is
seen somehow as a threat to US national security."

Marleine Bastien and other Haitian community leaders are
calling for the US government to offer their people
temporary asylum if they reach America, by whatever means.

"The difference between how we are treated as asylum
seekers and how Cubans are treated is remarkable. Cubans,
many of whom are white skinned, seem to get in
automatically whereas we are turned back almost as
routinely as the Cubans are admitted," she says.
Lawyer Cheryl White of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy
Centre says things have got worse for Haitians since the
Washington and New York terror attacks of September 2001.

"Now the Department of Homeland Security monitors all
refugee and asylum claims and national security is used to
refuse legitimate claims by people who are in real fear of
their lives. This is preposterous and wrong."

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, Bill
Strasburger, said asylum claims would still be processed
fully and fairly, "although we have taken the view that
Haitians have tended to be economic migrants and unless
someone has a personal fear of persecution or violence, and
can prove it, that view prevails".

Proud of Haiti

In recent days, as violence escalated in Haiti, hundreds of
Haitian asylum seekers have taken to ships and small boats
to escape their homeland.

President Bush himself has lead calls for the people of
Haiti to stay in their country. The US Coast guard will
turn back anyone who's taken from a ship at sea, he said.

In Little Haiti, grocery store clerk Celine Paul says her
customers would love to return to their homeland if it ever
becomes peaceful and prosperous.

"We are proud of Haiti, proud of our history of 200 years
of independence, but right now, there's not much more to be
proud of."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3496740.stm

Published: 2004/02/29 01:04:16 GMT

© BBC MMIV


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