Page 7 - aruba-today-20220527

A7
WORLD NEWS Friday 27 May 2022

'No future for babies:' 842 U.S.-bound Haitians end up in Cuba

By MILEXSY DURÁN and 19-year-old, said that gang
ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ members had killed his two
Associated Press sisters. "You can't go out on
VILLA CLARA, Cuba (AP) — the street" because of the
Some of the more than 840 violence, Cherizard said.
Haitians who tried to reach Due to sea currents and
the United States in a boat winds, some smugglers'
but ended up in Cuba said vessels aiming to reach the
Thursday that they fled vio- United States end up on
lence in their country and Cuban coasts. Not all arriv-
were charged thousands als are officially reported,
of dollars by smugglers who although in recent months
ushered them onto a di- authorities in Havana have
lapidated boat and later acknowledged an in-
abandoned them at sea. crease in arrivals. Migrants
It is the largest single arrival are usually returned to
of people from Haiti on the their home countries in ac-
Cuban coast amid an in- cordance with binational
creasing exodus caused by agreements.
gang violence and other The Haitians arrived in
problems there. Cuba at a time when the is-
"They deceived us. In my land itself is suffering from a
case (a trafficker) told me severe economic crisis with
that the boat was going Haitian migrants wait to be processed and receive medical attention at a tourist campground in food, medicine and fuel
to have 200 or 300 people, Sierra Morena, in the Villa Clara province of Cuba, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. shortages and high emigra-
and on a big boat it is nor- Associated Press tion to the United States.q
mal. But when you're on
board, you don't know how to go to Florida had spread tempt to reach their desti-
many people are going to spread by word of mouth nation.
appear," said Maximaud and some people said they Another migrant, 19-year-
Cherizard, a 34-year-old paid $4,000 each for a spot old Joyce Paul, said the
engineer who traveled with on the boat. captain had left in a small-
a 7-year-old son, his wife They were taken in a small er vessel and the one the
and his sister. boat to the larger one early migrants were on began to
"We were ashamed when Saturday morning and their lean. The Haitians signaled
we arrived" in Cuba, Cher- phones were taken away with flashlights towards the
izard said. The boat was so by smugglers, who alleged Cuban coast to be res-
packed that some people the signal would make cued.
were on the vessel's roof, them detectable by the In the days at sea, 15 peo-
he said. U.S. Coast Guard, accord- ple threw themselves into
The 842 people were res- ing to the migrants. the water as conditions
cued Tuesday by the Cu- Cherizard said he had grew more desperate, ac-
ban coast guard and other been shown a picture of cording to Paul.
government services in the a cruise liner that was go- There were 70 children, in-
vicinity of Caibarien in Villa ing to take the migrants, cluding infants, among the
Clara province, about 300 a promise that he realized migrants, Cuban authori-
kilometers (185 miles) east was false when he saw the ties reported.
of the capital, Havana. dilapidated boat. He and "In Haiti, there is no future for
They were taken to a tem- other migrants said they babies," said Loverie Horat,
porary center in a former did not see a name on the the 30-year-old mother of
summer camp and were vessel. a 24-day-old infant. She
in isolation as a health pre- Cherizard said he and his told The Associated Press
caution. family were placed in a that she and her husband
According to the account cabin with others with little boarded the boat after
of at least three migrants access to the rest of the leaving Port-au-Prince, Hai-
with whom the AP spoke, vessel. When the captain ti's capital. Her comments
the group left Tortuga Is- abandoned ship at sea in Creole were translated
land in northern Haiti after early Tuesday morning, into Spanish by Cherizard.
waiting there for almost two they learned that some Migrants said that insecurity
months for the trip. News of migrants had tried to take and poverty in Haiti forced
the supposed opportunity control of the boat in an at- them to flee. Paul, the