Bahamas sends 71 boat people back to Cuba

Published Wednesday, May 27, 1998, in the Miami Herald

THE AMERICAS

Bahamas sends 71 boat people back to Cuba

NASSAU -- (AP) -- The Bahamas sent 71 more Cuban boat people back to their homeland Tuesday, and an official said the government intends to empty its detention camp of Cuban refugees next week.

The action indicated the Bahamas is sticking to its new policy of discouraging Cubans from using the archipelago as a way station to the United States.

Nicaragua offered an 11th-hour reprieve last week, saying it would grant asylum to all Cuban detainees in the Bahamas. But 126 refugees were sent home last week.

The Bahamas does not want to be ``opening the floodgates for more [Cubans] to come,'' Luther Smith, permanent secretary for foreign affairs, said last week.

The deportations Tuesday of 41 men, 22 women and eight children left 59 Cubans at the Carmichael Road Detention Center outside Nassau, the government reported.

The 71 detainees were put on a Cubana Airlines plane chartered by the Bahamian government for the hourlong flight to Havana.

A senior Bahamian government official said the other Cuban refugees will be sent home next week.

Cuban exiles in the United States say returning refugees will be punished, but officials in Havana have promised there will be no retaliation.