22770: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Fair treatment for Haitian asylum seekers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Jul. 17, 2004




VERBATIM


Fair treatment for Haitian asylum seekers


Below are excerpts from Haitian Refugees: A People in Search of Hope, a
report released this week by the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami.

To flee from persecution is not a crime; it is a basic human right and one
that the U.S. government has recognized since it declared independence more
than 200 years ago. Asylum should not depend on politics. Asylum seekers are
not asking for special treatment, only fair and just treatment.

But since they first started coming to Miami shores nearly 50 years ago,
Haitian asylum seekers -- including women and children -- have been singled
out by the U.S. government and denied the fundamental protections that are
promised to refugees of virtually every other nationality. In the last
decade, tens of thousands of Haitians fleeing a military dictatorship were
given a cursory chance to plead for political asylum on Coast Guard cutters
and then repatriated.

Discriminatory measures

The number of Haitians seeking asylum dropped off once a democratic
government was restored, but not all of the political violence ceased. Our
policy toward Haitians became clearer after a December 2001 boat with 167
Haitians reached U.S. shores. Advocates began to see more pointedly the
series of discriminatory measures that created an almost insurmountable
barrier that even today prevents bona fide Haitian refugees from obtaining
protection in the United States.

This has included the worsening interdiction policy; resettlement to third
countries as far away as Australia of those few Haitians provided screening
and deemed refugees; prolonged and arbitrary detention of Haitians who are
able to make it to the United States; criminal prosecution of some Haitians
who use false documents to enter the United States, a punitive measure that
disregards the reality that refugees often have to resort to the use of
false documents to escape persecution; and fast-tracked asylum adjudications
in hearings as short as 30 minutes, including time for translation. These
policies have been applied to children as young as three years old. . . . ''

Recently, as Haiti teetered on the brink of anarchy, leaving hundreds dead,
the United States continued to forcibly repatriate Haitians who sought to
flee persecution and violence in their homeland. The United States did so
despite a plea from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for
neighboring countries to provide Haitian asylum seekers at least temporary
protection. The U.S. actions put the lives of hundreds of Haitian men, women
and children at risk.

Insurmountable barrier

On Feb. 25, while the U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens in Haiti to
evacuate, President Bush made clear that henceforth all Haitian refugees
interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard would be summarily returned. . . . These
policies create an almost insurmountable barrier that prevents Haitians from
obtaining asylum in the United States. True refugees are being returned to
persecution as a result. . . .

FIAC and other advocates have asked the Bush administration to grant
Haitians Temporary Protected Status and permit Haitians already in the
United States to remain until conditions are safe for their return.

FIAC is also urging the administration to suspend Haitian deportations, a
step already taken by Canada and the Dominican Republic.

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