19601: (Hermantin) Sun-Sentinel-Coast Guard repatriates 14 Haitian migrants caught on sailboat

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Coast Guard repatriates 14 Haitian migrants caught on sailboat

By Tal Abbady
Staff Writer
Posted March 1 2004

Hours after reports surfaced that President Jean Bertrand Aristide fled
Haiti in a U.S.-sanctioned move, 14 Haitian migrants attempting to flee
their country's upheaval were repatriated Sunday, the Coast Guard said.

The 12 men and two women landed Wednesday at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in
a 20-foot sailing vessel, according to Coast Guard spokeswoman Sandra
Bartlett.

Coast Guard aircraft spotted the vessel heading toward Cuba Wednesday and
alerted navy officials, who took the group into custody upon landing.

They were transferred to a Coast Guard cutter and repatriated Sunday
morning, Bartlett said.

Bartlett did not know where the migrants had departed from, and said it was
conceivable for an occasional boat to escape detection.

"It was a small boat on a large ocean," she said.

The quick processing and repatriation of the migrants comes amid a growing
chorus of appeals from immigrant advocates and elected officials to give
Haitian refugees in the U.S. temporary protective status and weigh the
persecution fears of those fleeing by boat.

The Coast Guard maintains there is no indication of a mass migration from
Haiti, though it has increased its patrols off Haiti's coast since civil
strife surrounding Aristide's government began raging across the country
earlier this month.

Since Feb. 21, the Coast Guard has repatriated 881 Haitian migrants,
including hundreds plucked from the Windward Pass, officials said.

Advocates such as Cheryl Little, head of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy
Center, insist the repatriations amount to human rights violations.

"Our government is violating international law by forcibly repatriating
Haitian refugees without due process," said Little.

The 21 Haitian nationals and seven crewmembers aboard a Panamanian freighter
that was reportedly hijacked and steered toward Florida last week were still
on board that vessel, the Margot, as federal agents continue their
investigation.

Tal Abbady can be reached at tabbady@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6624.

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