30266: (news) Chamberlain: Over 100 Haitian migrants land on Florida beach (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

    MIAMI, March 28 (Reuters) - More than 100 Haitian migrants landed on a
beach north of Miami on Wednesday after fleeing their impoverished
Caribbean homeland aboard a rickety sailboat, authorities said.
     At least one of the migrants died before making it ashore at
Hallandale Beach and about 101 others were being treated for dehydration,
said Coast Guard spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson.
     She said it was the largest U.S. landing of Haitian migrants in about
a year, and that conditions aboard their 30- to 35-foot (9-10-metre) vessel
were indicative of the strong need they must have felt to abandon the
poorest country in the Americas.
     "It's obviously not the best in seaworthiness," Johnson said of the
boat, which made the last part of its voyage in choppy seas. "It could be a
much worse situation had they not landed or had they had some sort of
emergency en route."
     A police spokesman said the trip was believed to have taken about
three weeks.
     Unlike Cuban migrants, who are allowed to stay in the United States if
they make landfall after crossing the treacherous Florida Straits, Haitian
boatpeople are generally returned home.
     Last year, the Coast Guard rounded up 6,093 migrants seeking to make
their way into the United States. Of that number, 769 were Haitians.
     Only 10 Haitians had been picked up by the Coast Guard so far this
year, before Wednesday's landing at Hallandale Beach.