Manhunt for Haitians

Kensington, Portland:

A manhunt has been launched by the police to locate at least 10 Haitians who fled their boat after landing undetected late Sunday night at a beach near Kensington in eastern Portland.

It is understood that at least 30 people, including adult males, adult females and toddlers, who are reportedly fleeing persecution, civil unrest, gang warfare, famine, and hunger in their war-torn homeland of Haiti, landed about midnight Sunday in a 20-foot sailboat at a rocky beach area at Kensington.

However, come daylight, the Haitian boat people were nowhere to be found.

According to Superintendent Ainsley McCarthy, the Portland police have managed, with the help and cooperation of citizens in the area, to locate 20 of the missing Haitians, including children below three years old, some of whom were found hiding in bushes with the adults.

Yesterday, The Gleaner witnessed the police detaining three adult males and two adult females, along with two toddlers, after they were found hiding in a cluster of bushes near the beach area at Kensington.

One of the three men who communicated with the police, indicated that there were about 30 of his countrymen on the boat when it landed in the dead of night on Sunday, but that he was unsure in which direction they might have fled.

In the meantime, Malene Alleyne, founder of Freedom Imaginaries, a human-rights lobby focused on seeking asylum for Haitian refugees, told The Gleaner via telephone that she will definitely be seeking to have dialogue with the Haitians, and that she was on the verge of preparing a letter to be sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, to determine the most effective humanitarian aid for the fleeing Haitians.

Gareth Davis Sr