21615: Esser: Re: 21598: Vishnusurf: Re: 21592: Esser: Saving Lives? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Your perceptions aside, in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status
of Refugees, refugee is defined in Article 1A(2) as,

"… [A]ny person who…owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted
for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country
of his [or her] nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is
unwilling to avail himself [or herself] of the protection of that
country…" .

By summarily sending people back to Haiti, I cannot see how the U.S.
Coast Guard is helping Haitians. If your house has burned down, your
family members have been killed etc. and you are being send back to
the country you fled from without hearings, you would not feel warm
and fuzzy about the "life savers". The Coast Guard, "a military,
maritime, multi-mission service within the Department of Homeland
Security dedicated to protecting the safety and security of America"
is not there to protect the lives of Haitians and while I am sure
they are comprised of able and honest people it is the policies
behind their orders that are detrimental to Haitians. Do you think
any refugee, no matter why they got on a boat, is looking forward to
being repatriated on a Coast Guard Cutter? And does that save the
lives of those fleeing political persecution? U.S. Coast Guard
interdictions and U.S. foreign policy can not be separated from
another. The U.S. Coast Guard is executing these policies and
therefore I criticize their actions. As you may know: curiously they
don't fear for Cuban refugees as much, since these don't face the
same policies and interdiction schemes as Haitians even if fleeing
for the same reasons. Now, looking at Jamaica, one can see efforts of
genuinely trying to help Haitian refugees...
.