[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 85 (Monday, May 22, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S7135]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   HAITIAN CHILDREN AT GUANTANAMO BAY

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, the current issue of Time 
magazine includes a beautifully written article by Tammerliin Drummond 
describing the plight of more than 200 Haitian refugee children being 
kept at a place called Camp Nine at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. 
The children escaped Haiti on rafts nearly a year ago, and many of them 
are orphans.
  News has reached Guantanamo that the Cuban refugees living there will 
soon be admitted to the United States, yet there is no end in sight for 
the interned Haitian children. A report in the Washington Post over the 
weekend indicates efforts are being made to help the Haitian children, 
but under current United States policy, they are ineligible for 
``humanitarian parole'' to enter the United States because democratic 
government has been restored in Haiti. The children will be returned to 
Haiti if relatives can be located there; 60 children have been 
repatriated thus far. Sadly, however, some of those children have ended 
up not with relatives, but living in the streets of Haiti.
  I commend Tammy Drummond for calling attention to the awful 
conditions these children are enduring in Cuba. It is not easy for a 
reporter to gain access to the Haitian children at Camp Nine, but Tammy 
Drummond did it and we are in her debt. I hope her compelling account 
will be read widely in the executive branch, and that the children will 
be released from the camp as soon as possible.
  I ask that Tammerliin Drummond's article from the May 22, 1995, issue 
of Time magazine be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:
                   [From Time Magazine, May 22, 1995]

    Suffer the Children--Haitian Orphans Are Stranded in Guantanamo

                        (By Tammerliin Drummond)

       At Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuban refugees cavort happily 
     on the beach in a scene reminiscent of a Club Med. They have 
     good reason to celebrate: soon they will be flying off to 
     freedom in the U.S. Meanwhile, less than a mile away, more 
     than 200 Haitian children lounge listlessly under drab green 
     tents, seeking refuge from the harsh midday sun. Camp Nine, 
     their home since last June, is a desolate patch of cactus-
     filled desert where the only sign of life is an occasional 
     banana rat or iguana. A fence encircles the camp, which is 
     guarded by American soldiers. The children, many of them 
     orphans, have languished in this dusty purgatory for nearly a 
     year. Despite the efforts of immigrants' rights groups, only 
     a few of the Haitian minors--who range in age from infants to 
     teenagers, including some who are pregnant--have been allowed 
     to enter the U.S.
       ``When I heard that the U.S. was going to let 15,000 Cubans 
     into the country and leave 450 Haitians in Guantanamo, I felt 
     like someone had stuck me with a knife,'' says a 17-year-old 
     boy. ``This is a very cruel situation.'' (U.S. military 
     officials will not allow the children to be quoted by name.) 
     When Attorney General Janet Reno announced the new Cuban 
     policy on May 3, dozens of furious Haitian teens first tried 
     to organize a hunger strike with the younger children, then 
     went on a rampage, pelting soldiers with rocks and setting 
     tents on fire. No one was seriously injured in the melee, but 
     a handful of soldiers and children ended up with cuts and 
     bruises.
       Earlier this year some of the children attempted suicide by 
     drinking bleach. Marleine Bastien, a Miami social worker, 
     counseled a desperate 16-year-old boy who tried to hang 
     himself from a tree branch in February. He survived only 
     because the branch snapped under his weight. ``Many of these 
     children have expressed suicidal ideas,'' says Bastien. ``Are 
     we going to have to wait for a fatality before something is 
     done?''
       During the rafter crisis last summer, more than 20,000 
     Haitians and 30,000 Cubans were intercepted at sea and 
     delivered to hastily erected camps in Guarntamamo. Among the 
     refugees were 321 unaccompanied Cuban children, all of whom 
     have since have been paroled to the U.S. But of the 356 
     unaccompanied Haitian children who ended up a Gitmo, only 22 
     have been admitted to the U.S., because they needed medical 
     attention or had a parent already in the States. Since the 
     island has officially returned to democratic rule, 
     immigration officials say, Haitians don't qualify for 
     humanitarian parole. Some of these children were orphaned in 
     Haiti, and set to sea alone or with friends; others saw their 
     parents drown. Because of the violence the deprivation they 
     have experienced, many of the kids are terrified of going 
     back to Haiti.
       Yet the official U.S. policy for these children is to 
     locate relatives in Haiti and send the kids to them. So far, 
     60 Haitian children have been returned. But last week Florida 
     Rural Legal Services released a report condemning the 
     repatriations. ``The claim that what is being done is in the 
     best interest of the children is a farce,'' said Niels 
     Frenzen, a public-interest lawyer who helped track down some 
     of the returnees and found that many were homeless or living 
     in squalor with strangers. ``There is only one humane 
     solution to this problem. Close down the camp and accept the 
     generosity of the families and agencies willing to care for 
     these young people, just as we have done for Cuban 
     children.''
       According to Florida Legal Services, all but 40 of the 
     Haitian children have U.S. sponsors lined up. ``We told the 
     State Department months ago that we had foster parents to 
     sponsor these children,'' said Deacon Chris Baumann, 
     spokesman of the U.S. Catholic Conference. Yet the children's 
     advocates report that even in cases where they have located 
     U.S. relatives, the State Department has refused to grant 
     them entry. Helene Charles, a 36-year-old Haitian living in 
     Fort Lauderdale, says she has been trying for months to 
     obtain a visa for her 14-year-old son Kissene. She left him 
     behind in Haiti with her mother, but she became ill and could 
     no longer care for him. Kissene got on a raft with some 
     friends, who got word to his mother that he was at 
     Guantanamo.
       U.S. authorities will say only that all cases are under 
     review. ``You can't just move them lock, stock and barrel to 
     the United States and separate them from their families 
     forevermore,'' said a State Department official. ``You have 
     to find out where each child's family is and go and look for 
     the family.'' That can be a long, difficult process, says the 
     State Department, which hopes most of the children will be 
     released from the camp by early July.
       ``We just want to get out as fast as possible and go 
     elsewhere,'' says a 17-year-old boy who has a cousin in the 
     U.S. ``We are not criminals, but we are living in a 
     prison.''
     

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