May 1, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E 893

UNITED STATES SPONSORS WAIT

FOR UNACCOMPANIED HAITIAN

CHILDREN

HON. CARRIE P. MEEK OF FLORIDA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Monday, May 1, 1995

Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, few

things are as traumatic for a child as being

abandoned. However, for the past 9 months,

249 unaccompanied Haitian children have

been detained in a hot, dusty refugee camp at

the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo

Bay, Cuba. The plight of these children demands the attention of every American.

I want to share with my colleagues an article that appeared in this morning’s New York

Times which describes the plight of these unfortunate, minor children, who have waited for

months—and possibly will have to wait several

more months—while the United Nations High

Commissioner on Refugees tries to find

homes for them in Haiti.

This article details the harsh, impermanent

life that these children face in the camp, despite the best efforts of dedicated U.S. military

personnel to help make the best of a bad situation. I urge all my colleagues to read this article.

The United States would not tolerate such

treatment for our children. In fact, the United

States does not treat Cuban children at Guantanamo in this manner. The time has come for

the United States to end this kind of treatment

to Haitian children at Guantanamo, too.

At Guantanamo, these children are alone,

vulnerable and depressed. However, many of

these children have relatives living in the United States who are ready and willing to care

for them. Religious and community groups in

Miami have volunteered to provide whatever

resources are necessary to insure that no

child would become a public charge and that

each would be fully supported.

Mr. Speaker, children belong in homes, not

camps. The time has come to close this camp

and insure these children a decent place in

which to live where they are wanted, loved,

nutured and properly cared for. The Justice

Department needs to change its policies to

make this possible.

[From the New York Times, May 1, 1995]

MANY HAITIAN CHILDREN VIEW CAMP’S LIMBO

AS PERMANENT

(By Mireya Navarro)

GUANTA ́ NAMO BAY, Cuba.—In a neat corner

of a tent at the United States Naval Base

here, an assortment of personal items had

been tightly arranged on two cardboard

boxes that served as a night stand: lotion to

protect against the relentless Caribbean sun,

detergent to hand-wash laundry, and M&M’s

and Tootsie Rolls.

The occupant who calls that corner home

is a 13-year-old boy, and what he lacked was

shoes. He is among 249 Haitian children who

have been held in one of 14 refugee camps

here since last summer while American officials decide, case by case, whether to allow

them into the United States or send them

back to Haiti. As the weeks drag on, shoes

and clothes donated by relief organizations

are sometimes in short supply.

So, the boy said, he has skipped school for

five days while he goes barefoot. He was too

embarrassed to do otherwise.

‘‘He doesn’t want to go to school without

shoes; it’s understandable,’’ said Capt. Michael Dvoracek, the Army officer who oversees the Haitian children’s camp, operated

by a joint military task force. ‘‘We’d love to

get more shoes and clothes. They are growing kids, and it doesn’t take long for them to

go through a pair of shoes when they do get

them.’’

At a portable Air Force hospital, another

‘‘unaccompanied minor’’ from Haiti, a teenager named Marie-Carole Celestin, awaited a

decision on her future, with a badly injured

right hip. She was summoned to the hospital

the other day with all her belongings because her doctors had recommended that she

be sent to the United States for surgery that

could not be performed here.

But for the third time the Justice Department said no. Her pediatrician, Lieut. Col.

Nadege Maletz, said that because MarieCarole’s hip injury had existed before she left

Haiti and was not considered acute, she had

not been deemed eligible for treatment in

the United States. But Colonel Maletz said

she would make another appeal. In the

meantime, she said, the girl’s discomfort has

kept her from sleeping at night, and so she

will be sent back to the camp with painkillers.

The children, most from 14 to 17 years old

but some as young as 2 months, are among

the last 480 of 21,000 Haitians who were settled in the refugee camps here after they fled

political violence in their homeland last

year.

Most of the adults were repatriated beginning last November, shortly after the Rev.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide was restored to the

presidency. But scores of children remain

here while the United Nations High Commission on Refugees and other organizations

trace relatives to make certain that the

young Haitians have a proper home when

they either return to their country or, for

very few, make it to the United States.

The base provides the children clothing,

food and schooling. But the tent city where

they live is dusty, the supplies of donated

items like shoes are haphazard, medical care

is limited, and spirits are low.

As with most of the Haitian children

here—who are believed to have close relatives remaining in Haiti, where the political situation is still somewhat unsettled—

the barefoot 13-year-boy was allowed to

speak to a reporter on the condition that his

name not be published. ‘‘I’m alone here,’’ he

said. ‘‘I don’t feel good here. It’s been nine

months.’’

The United States houses Haitian and

Cuban refugees separately here—there are 2

camps for Haitians, 12 for Cubans—and also,

say advocates for the Haitian children,

treats them unequally. While a revision in

American policy has reopened the door to

entry to the United States fairly wide for

Cuban children, particularly those who are

unaccompanied by their parents here, that

door remains almost entirely closed to

young Haitians.

Alleging discrimination, lawyers for the

Haitian Refugee Center in Miami have filed

a petition asking the United States Supreme

Court to order that the Haitian children be

admitted.

The lawyers note that the Clinton Administration is reviewing the cases even of

Cuban children who are in the care of their

parents here, but for whom a long stay at

Guanta ́namo would constitute ‘‘an extraordinary hardship.’’ This, they argue, amounts

to saying that refugee camps that are hard

on Cuban children are adequate for Haitian

children.

American officials explain the differences

in treatment by saying that Haitians as a

whole can now return home to a democracy,

an option the Cubans do not have. And better

to keep the Haitian children here for the

time being, they say, than to send them to

an unknown fate before their relatives can

be found back in their country.

‘‘I don’t know how we can run a more humane policy,’’ said Brig. Gen. John J. Allen,

the Air Force officer who commands the

camps.

How did Haitian youths wind up alone

here? Why had they set out on their dangerous voyage alone? In some cases, advocates say, because their parents had been

killed in Haiti, in others because they represented a family’s hope of riches in America.

Whatever the case, tracing relatives has

been hampered not only because of all the

logistical and communications problems entailed in reaching remote areas of the children’s little homeland but also because the

children often provide inaccurate or insufficient information about their families—

sometimes intentionally, in an effort to

avoid being sent back.

Since November, when the tracing began,

only about 70 of the youths have been placed

in Haiti—or ‘‘aged out’’ as they turn 18, at

which point most are repatriated. Even the

most optimistic estimates foresee most of

them remaining here through the summer.

Very few of the Haitian children—23 so

far—have been allowed into the United

States. These are children who had parents

there or had medical problems deemed lifethreatening.

At the portable hospital, Colonel Maletz

said this policy had meant, for instance, that

a diabetic girl and an H.I.V.-infected boy

with a lung ailment had been allowed to immigrate, while four children who need surgery for cataracts and other eye problems

had not, even in cases that posed a risk of vision loss.

As the camps for Haitians are phased out

and the camps for Cubans become more nearly permanent, the Cubans are afforded improvements that the Haitians lack.

An increasing number of Cubans are sheltered now in sturdier ‘‘strong-back’’ tents

with wooden floors and window screens, for

instance. There are also plans to allow them

visits from relatives in the United States.

Neither step is being considered for the Haitian children, simply because they are not

expected to be here beyond a few more

months.

Still, recent additions to Camp 9, a former

airfield where the children live in 24 tents

with 20 Haitian adults known as ‘‘house parents,’’ include a playground for small children, a basketball hoop and an open area for

soccer and volleyball. A suspended cargo

parachute provides shade for a gathering

place, as does a huge tree where a dozen boys

sat on picnic tables the other day, hanging

out.

The Haitian youths are expected to rise at

6 A.M. and go to bed at 10 P.M. Their responsibilities consist of attending school, doing

their own laundry, keeping the camp clean

and helping with chores like serving food.

Teen-agers, eight of whom have become

pregnant since arriving at the camp, receive

contraceptives. They also have adult education classes. (A sign on a bulletin board

summoned, in Creole: ‘‘Women Only! To discuss quality of life in camp. Types of activities you want. Types of supplies you need.

What’s important to you.’’)

On one recent day, seven teenagers were on

‘‘administrative segregation’’ in another

camp, most of them for fights during which

they ‘‘took a swing’’ at an intervening soldier or camp worker, Captain Dvoracek said.

But he minimized any such problems, saying

that ‘‘the vast majority are great kids.’’

Around the camp, the children’s main complaint is uncertainty of the future. Mental

health workers here say that most of the
E 894 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks May 1, 1995

children are handling their stay well but

that many suffer from adjustment disorders

like depression.

When the 13-year-old barefoot boy heard

that children in the neighboring camps for

Cubans were being flown to the United

States, he told his keepers that his mother

was Cuban. Switching from Haitian Creole to

fluent Spanish, he said his father, a Haitian,

had not liked Cuba and so had taken him to

Haiti when he was 8, leaving his mother behind.

He said he did not want to go to Cuba, because Cuban refugees had already warned

him that things were bad there. And he said

he did not want to go back to Haiti, where,

he said, he saw his father shot to death by

‘‘guards’’ in 1994 ‘‘because they thought he

worked with Aristide.’’ His hope, he said, is

an uncle in Florida whom he has tried to call

but whose telephone has been disconnected.

Sitting on a cot in his neat corner in the

tent, bent over with elbows on his thighs, he

spoke in an irritated tone. He said he passed

the time sleeping, attending school and

thinking about ‘‘my father, who died.’’ If he

makes it to the United States, he said, he

wants to learn English and study to be a doctor and a journalist.

He said he was still waiting for a response

to his contention that he is half Cuban.

‘‘We want to leave, too,’’ he said.

MEDWAY-GRAPEVILLE VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF FIGHTING

GREENE COUNTY FIRES

HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON OF NEW YORK

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Monday, May 1, 1995

Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, those who

have visited my office have probably noticed

the display of fire helmets which dominates

the reception area. The hats hang in that

prominent position for two reasons.

First, I had the privilege of serving as a volunteer firefighter in my hometown of

Queensbury for over 20 years. During that

time, I gained a great amount of respect and

appreciation for the selfless volunteers who

devote their time and energy to protecting our

rural areas from the devastation of fire. This

immense admiration is the second reason for

the location of my hat collection.

In rural areas such as the many small towns

in the 22d district of New York, fire protection

is more often than not solely the responsibility

of volunteer firemen such as those of the

Medway-Grapeville Volunteer Fire Company.

These dedicated individuals have saved

countless lives and billions of dollars worth of

property in New York State alone. And the

Medway-Grapeville Volunteer Fire Company

exemplifies the kind of heroism which makes

volunteer firefighters such an important part of

our local communities.

During my years as a volunteer fireman, I

noticed some extraordinary things about my

company. Its members were among the most

varied groups of people I have encountered

before or since. There were teachers, doctors,

and farmers, just to name a few of the many

walks of life represented. Despite their many

differences, however, these volunteers had

two very important things in common—a

strong desire to help their fellow neighbors in

times of trouble, and an unwavering commitment to perform their duties at any time, day

or night, whenever they were needed. I know

that my experience was not a unique one, and

that the volunteers of the Medway-Grapeville

Company are equally dedicated to and superbly skilled in their most crucial roles as

community protectors.

Mr. Speaker, on May 6, the MedwayGrapeville will celebrate its 50th year of service to Greene County. I would now ask that all

Members join me in paying tribute to the

Medway-Grapeville Volunteer Fire Company,

as it celebrates a half-century of firefighting

excellence.