Tragedy for Haitian Refugees Continues

Seems like everyday Haitian refugees fleeing their impoverished nation continue to die at sea. Friends, there has to be a better way.

Matt Sedensky reports for the Associated Press:

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers searched an expanding stretch of the Atlantic off Florida on Thursday for survivors a day after an overloaded boat capsized and sank with about 30 people aboard, mainly Haitian immigrants fleeing their country’s crushing poverty

At least nine people were known to have died, including an infant, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. Sixteen more people were pulled out of rough waters after the first survivors were discovered Wednesday.

Undocumented migrants from Haiti are almost always deported, a sore point for Miami’s Haitian-American community because Cuban migrants who reach U.S. shores are allowed to stay under federal government policy. Cubans interdicted at sea are usually returned to the communist island. Click here for the rest of this story.

Manuel Roig-Franzia reported on a different group of Haitians two weeks ago in the Washington Post:

MEXICO CITY, May 4 — At least 20 Haitian migrants died and 58 were missing Friday after an overloaded sailboat capsized off the Turks and Caicos Islands.

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter, accompanied by a helicopter and a C-130 plane, searched for survivors of the tragedy, which occurred during a dramatic upswing in illegal migration from the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The Coast Guard said 704 Haitians were rescued at sea in April, nearly as many as were taken into custody in all of last year, when 769 rescues were recorded. Click here for the rest of this story.

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