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PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 17 (IPS) – A group of Cuban refugees who thought they could use Haiti as transit point into the United States, now find themselves being knocked about between border police of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Their case is an ironic one because Haiti is itself an exporter of thousands of illegal refugees to the United States.

Illegal migration is certain to be one of the subjects discussed by Haitian officials when they meet the Governor of Florida, Mark Lawton Chiles, here beginning Wednesday (May 17). Florida is the U.S. state that is target of most refugees from the Caribbean. Chiles is accompanied by General John Sheehan of the U.S. Army.

Fourteen Cubans, including four children, arrived in the country illegally from the Dominican Republic on Sunday. They had crossed into Haiti via the southern frontier at Malpasse, situated 48 kms east of this capital.

Haitian police returned them to Dominican Republic. On Tuesday evening, the Dominicans sent them back into Haiti.

The refugees had apparently used false passports to cross the frontier shared by the two Caribbean nations. They were lodged for 24 hours by the Haitian Red Cross.

Taken to the border by Haitian immigration authorities and members of the Interim Police of the United Nations Mission to Haiti (MINUHA), the refugees were refused entry.

''We paid between 3,000 and 5,000 pesos (between 250 and 400 American dollars) to a Dominican women specialising in guiding illegal immigrants,'' said one of the reguees.

She said this woman had ''promised to show us where to cross the border with the minimum difficult. We had to transit through Haiti on our way to the United States to rejoin our relatives living there.''

Realising that they had been tricked, the refugees expressed fears that they would be thrown into prison by the police if they returned to the Dominican Republic.

They originally held genuine Cuban passports, but had been talked into handing them over to their Dominican guide. That Dominican guide had promised U.S. passports, but no such documents were forthcoming.

Most of the 14 refugees had been living legally for one year in the Dominican Republic. Their money had gradually run out.

But one of the refugees said they would have no problems living in the United States.

''There would be no need for the government of the United States to take care of us. Our families living there are well able and willing to take care of us financially while we are getting on our feet.''

She said they decided to leave Cuba because of the ''violations of human rights, the restrictions placed on freedom of expression, and the lack of basic staples like medicaments, despite the availability of good doctors.''

Haitian officials have been unwilling to discuss the issue.

While waiting to find a country willing to accept them, the 14 Cuban refugees brought back to Haiti Tuesday, where the Haitian Red Cross again put them up, expressed their hope of either getting American visas or of being sent back to the Dominican Republic – but with their papers in order.

The position of Haitians illegally residing in Florida is another problem for the Aristide administration. (END/IPS/IMC)

Origin: Amsterdam/HAITI-REFUGEES/

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[c] 1994, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)

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