a1246: Haitian women asylum seekers complain about US prison (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Alan Elsner, National Correspondent

     MIAMI, March 14 (Reuters) - Haitian political asylum seekers held in a
women's prison in the United States charge they face verbal abuse and
insults from guards and get bad food and no medical treatment.
     Human rights groups say the women are being treated especially harshly
to deter other Haitians from fleeing to the United States as the situation
in their homeland deteriorates.
     "The officers constantly tell us we smell. We are very unhappy and
depressed; we don't sleep or eat well. Everything that happens here gets
blamed on the Haitian women because we don't speak the language," said
Rosalind LeGrand, who is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight
correctional center, a prison near Miami International Airport.
     Last Dec. 3, a boatload of 187 Haitians approached the Florida coast
in stormy seas. Two drowned, 20 managed to swim ashore and the rest were
taken ashore by the U.S. Coast Guard and placed in custody.
     The men went to the Krome detention center outside Miami where over
600 detainees are being held in a facility designed for fewer than 400. The
women were taken to TGK prison. Most of the children went to juvenile
facilities.
     According to Cheryl Little, director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy
Center, prior to December Haitians who made it ashore and convinced an
immigration officer they had a credible fear of persecution were almost
always released on parole until a judge could hear their case.
     "Since December, they are not releasing anyone, even after they pass
the credible fear interview. The authorities are clearly trying to deter
more Haitians from coming," she said.
     In the early 1990s, tens of thousands of Haitians attempted the
dangerous sea voyage to Miami, often in rickety, homemade craft. Over
20,000 were detained at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, now
being used to house Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners captured in Afghanistan,
before eventually being returned to Haiti.
     Little said the administration of President George W. Bush wanted no
repeat of that scenario.
     Political disturbances, assassinations, riots and food shortages have
occurred in Haiti in the past year and there was a failed coup attempt in
December. The United States has criticized the government of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide for "serious human rights abuses."
     This week, the U.S Coast Guard on Tuesday repatriated 65 Haitian
migrants to Port-au-Prince after rescuing them at sea from an overloaded
sailboat. Since October 2001, 919 Haitians have been intercepted at sea,
according to the Coast Guard.
     Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar
denied there was a new policy on detaining Haitians who make it ashore.
     "Immigration cases are determined on an individual basis and not
according to nationality," she said.
     Human rights advocates have been concerned about conditions in the
Miami district of the INS for years. Women and men were originally both
held at Krome, but the women were moved to TGK in December 2000, after
several detainees alleged they were victims of sexual abuse by guards.
     But Wendy Young of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and
Children said conditions at TGK prison in some ways were even worse than at
Krome.
     "Translation services are not readily available, medical care is
shockingly inadequate, the food is unappetizing and the women describe it
as inedible, the environment is claustrophobic and isolating," she said.
     Laurence St. Pierre, a female detainee, said she wakes up every
morning spitting blood and with stiff joints but has yet to see a doctor
after over three months of detention. Two pregnant women detainees also had
received no medical checks.
     "They haven't changed our sheets for two weeks. They change them every
three weeks," she said. "The fruit tastes like it is old or rotten. Most of
us don't touch it. When they give us chicken, it is not completely cooked."
     Among other complaints voiced by inmates in interviews with Reuters:
they pay 25 cents a minute for telephone calls; they are subject to strip
searches whenever they go for recreation, which takes place on a small
balcony surrounded by high walls and a mesh ceiling; they are subject to
frequent head counts and lock downs; they lack basic toiletries; they are
not allowed to be in the same room as family members during visits and have
to speak through a glass partition.
     INS spokeswoman Kraushaar said: "We encourage all detainees who have
complaints to contact us immediately. There is a hotline on which they can
make complaints anonymously."
     She said the INS had taken steps to address complaints about the food.
In general, she said: "These people have broken the law by attempting to
enter the United States illegally. Until their cases are resolved, it is
necessary to detain them and they are subject to the policies and
procedures of the facility in which they are housed."
     Last weekend, Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers visited TGK and
met with detainees. He said he was disturbed by the lack of fresh air and
exercise and the frequent lock-downs when women are confined in the cells
for hours on end. He was particularly worried about the lack of Creole
speakers on the INS or prison staff who could communicate with the
detainees.
     "These women are in a high security setting when they are not alleged
to have violated any criminal laws. They are being deprived needlessly of
basic necessities," said Keenan Kellar, minority counsel to the House
Judiciary Committee, who accompanied Conyers on the visit.