FILE -
A group of Haitians outside the Montpelier Post Office in St. James, last week.
PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson said yesterday that the Government has no current plans to force nearly 300 Haitians to return to their poverty-stricken and flood-ravaged homeland, despite last week's announcement that they had failed in their bids to qualify for refugee status.
Mr. Patterson told journalists, during a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, that the Government had come to a short-term decision against such a move in the wake of Tropical Storm Jeanne, which killed nearly 2,000 people in Haiti last month.
REPATRIATION TO BE DEFERRED
"The Cabinet at our meeting last Monday, in looking at the plight of the Haitian people had decided that no matter what was the assessment as to the eligibility of these Haitians, we would defer for a while any question of repatriation," Mr. Patterson said.
The Prime Minister was responding to the continuing outcry against last Wednesday's announcement that 281 Haitians had been denied refugee status and would be given seven days in which to appeal.
But yesterday Mr. Patterson pointed out that the seven-day window would not begin until a special appeals tribunal had been set up and the Haitians had been notified. The categories for membership in the tribunal were decided by Cabinet yesterday, and the members should be selected next week.
