Speech #960300374

It was nothing more than a cagedoff area. staffed by highly qualified and dedicated. yet an insufficient number of. health professionals. I was shocked to learn mentally ill patients under treatment are not segregated from homosexuals and criminals among the population. The presence of chronic mental health problems among the refugees is verified by the fact that during the month of July. 27 percent of all visits to the emergency room were for violent or selfdestructive reasons. As implied in my eighth recommendation. these patients should not return to the compound with the other refugees. where they may be taken advantage of or where innocent refugees will become victims of the mentally ill. Additionally. the U.S. Government should establish a policy directed toward providing the institutional and psychological care needed for the refugees with mental problems. This longterm problem could be resolved immediately. not through the timeconsuming passage of legislation. Regarding my ninth recommendation for postplacement refugee followup. I believe there should be specific monitoring procedures to insure refugees are being properly cared for by their sponsors. The sponsors are under a moral obligation only. and I have heard scattered reports of some refugees being treated as slaves. prostitutes. or dependents for purposes of obtaining welfare benefits by the sponsor. There should also be notification of local community and Government agencies of a refugees placement within their jurisdictions. so they can assist in the follow up. As for the tenth recommendation for policies governing placement of "difficult" refugees. I would like to share some statistics developed by Rachel M. Schwartz. a health researcher at Fort McCoy. who has made a report to the Alcohol. Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration of the Public Health Service. These statistics graphically illustrate some of the types of people Castro released. in addition to raising some serious concerns about future U.S. policy toward the remaining refugees. who will be difficult to place. It is my understanding INS has set up a computer databank of information on each refugee at Fort McCoy. including their resettlement destination. age. medical clearance. and sponsor. as well as information provided bv the refugee in personal interviews by INS officials. As of August 2. according to comouter data. 75 percent of the 6.660 refugees still at Fort McCoy admitted they had been in jail for more than 2 weeks. Of this 75 percent. 33 percent had been imprisoned for crimes such as theft. murder. burglary. et cetera. 32 percent had been jailed for drug abuse. gambling. disorderly conduct. black market activities. antisocial behavior. et cetera. and 35 percent had been jailed for such crimes as being absent from the army. refusing to serve in the army. loitering. not going to work. or for political reasons. While these figures are highly indicative of the magnitude of the criminal and security problems at Fort McCoy. a personal observation I made while there brings this point home even more vividly. While on my inspection tour. U.S. marshal Reggie Wilkinson showed me a closet full of over 900 homemade knives. pokers. machetes. and other weapons confiscated from refugees. The presence of these weapons confirms the serious security problem that exists at Fort McCoy. Unfortunately. I must report that the security situation has deteriorated to the point where 450 additional military troops were called in just last night to supplement the 600 already there. This data. which hopefully also is being compiled at Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvpnia and Fort Chaffee in Arkansas. illustrates the future problem of placing undesirable refugees and the need for policies governing their placementwhether in homes. prisons. or other institutional settings appropriate to their special problems. To aid in the formulation of a resettlement policy for these individuals. I shall request the State Department. the Department of Health and Human Services. and other appropriate agencies to provide a summary profile of the background of the Cuban refugees at the various camps. This should be useful in planning policies to deal with the remaining Cubans and for future refugee influxes. As for my last recommendation. the startling number of airplane hijackings by Cubans seeking to return to Cuba clearly proves the need for permanent procedures for the repatriation of refugees seeking to return to their native lands. The lack of administration guidelines on these situations has forced us into a position of reacting to them on a piecemeal. inconsistent basis. and has prompted some disgruntled refugees to take matters in their own hands by hijacking airplanes. In conclusion. I would hope the U.S. Government can learn from its mistakes. The mismanagement and lack of coordination must not be repeated in the future. if and when large numbers of refugees are allowed into the United States. I believe the recommendations I have made today will remedy those problems.