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- <text id=93TT2334>
- <title>
- Jan. 18, 1993: Hungry for Freedom
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Jan. 18, 1993 Fighting Back: Spouse Abuse
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK
- NATION, Page 18
- Hungry for Freedom
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Haitian refugees protest a double standard in immigration policy
- </p>
- <p> After months behind barbed wire at Krome Detention center
- outside Miami, some 160 Haitian refugees concluded that it was
- time for a desperate gesture. They announced a hunger strike to
- win their freedom, in an effort to protest what they see as an
- immigration double standard. The Haitians watched angrily as 48
- Cubans who hijacked an airliner out of Havana earlier this month
- were released almost overnight. Hundreds of black Haitians--who risked a 600-mile sea voyage in rickety boats to flee an
- often cruel military rule--have been detained for months while
- their asylum claims are reviewed.
- </p>
- <p> Most of the hunger strikers abandoned their fast after
- nine days, reputedly because of threats by immigration
- officials. However, some 45 Haitians--mostly women--continued. "They don't want to live. They were victims in Haiti,
- and now they're victims here too," said refugee lawyer Cheryl
- Little.
- </p>
- <p> In an effort to forestall a massive refugee influx from
- Haiti, both the old and new White House Administrations were
- pushing for a political settlement between the military and
- ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Last week, however, the
- boats kept coming: a record boatload of 352 Haitian refugees
- sailed up the Miami River.
- </p>
-
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-