Today. I received a report from Mr. Worth CooleyProst. who is at the dockside in PortauPrince monitoring the forced return of the refugees. Mr. CooleyProst. who is president of the board of directors of the Washington office on Haiti. said that when the arriving refugees were told to go to the United States consulate. numerous attempts were made to phone the consulate and the phone at the consulate was never answered. The refugees at the docks expressed fear of going to the consulate and did so only when accompanied by an American volunteer. The refugees complained of long interrogations that tried to prove their claims false. At the docks the refugees were further intimidated when the Haitian military took their fingerprints. Some were even singled out for a second fingerprinting by the police. When asked why. the American volunteers were told by an unnamed U.S. consulate officer at the docks that those doing the fingerprinting could not even read them and were doing it for intimidation purposes only. President Bush said there is no more room at Guantanamo. True. the old aircraft runway there is crowded with refugees. And. it also gets hot in tents erected on the runway with summer coming. Water is provided through pipes laid on the surface and when the temperature reaches well over 100 degrees. we are told the water is virtually undrinkable. But. there is plenty of other open space at Guantanamo if the refugees could just be taken off the runway. The State Department reports they have interviewed 1.800 of the first 11.600 involuntarily returned refugees to Haiti. In not even one of these interviews do they report any persecution taking place. I have a hard time reconciling this clean report with others we read from respected human rights groups. It is obvious to many that when people live in an environment of killing and reprisal taking. that they would be hesitant to say things that would bring further harm. When a GAO report was requested by Chairman CONYERS of the Government Operations Committee. we found out that mistakes were made at Guantanamo Bay by our Government. 54 refugees were sent back to Haiti. whom our Government certified had credible asylum claims. There also could be mistakes made in the methodology used in the interview of the 1.800. 1 believe we should also have an investigation by GAO of those interviews. Madam Speaker.
Keywords matched
asylum claims refugees