Haitian-Americans fear an exodus from turmoil at home

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Thu, Feb. 19, 2004

Haitian-Americans fear an exodus from turmoil at home

ADRIAN SAINZ

Associated Press


MIAMI - Many Haitian-Americans fear the bloodletting in their homeland will lead to another exodus of refugees setting out for Florida in dangerously flimsy boats.

"People are trying to find a different way to survive. Right now, all I hear about over there is death, death, death. It hurts," said a tearful Patricia Alexis, a 27-year-old nursing student who lives in Miami's Little Haiti section and speaks daily with her mother back in Haiti. "Obviously we have a lot of problems if we're going to have people getting in boats, risking their lives."

U.S. officials said there are no signs of any large-scale boat building along Haiti's coast, which is usually a harbinger of a mass migration. But the State Department, the Coast Guard and the Homeland Security Department said contingency plans are in place to deal with an exodus.

During Haiti's military dictatorship between 1991 and 1994, more than 65,000 Haitians were intercepted at sea by the Coast Guard, and most were sent back home, including many who were initially taken to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Activists estimate hundreds of refugees died at sea in 1994 alone, though there are no reliable official figures.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/7992284.htm