Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
SECRET
London SWIA 2AH
28 May 1992
Dear Stephen,
Haitian Boat People
Thank you for your letter of 22 May, asking for advice on Secretary Baker's request that we agree to the Americans building a screening centre for Haitian Boat People on the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) as their facilities in Guantanamo were overwhelmed (latest reports say they are holding over 12,000 Haitian boat people).
We
This is not the first such request. In November 1991, when the original wave of boat people threatened to overwhelm US coastguards, the Americans made a concerted attempt with a notable lack of success to secure help from a number of states and territories in the region (including Mexico, Venezuela, Jamaica, Guadeloupe and Martinque, Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas). They also asked us to provide facilities in the Caymans or TCI. declined. DT Governments, who constitutionally have responsibility for immigration, were implacably opposed. They feared their small societies would be swamped and that being characterised as refugee centres would ruin their tourist industries. These fears are well grounded: the population of the TCI is only 13,000, water supplies are scarce, and tourism is the main source of revenue.
Nothing has changed to make the new US request more palatable. With ODA help, a holding centre has been set up in the TCT for Haitian boat people. But it can hold only 200 at most, and has to be kept free for any boat
No suitable people who arrive there of their own accord. alternative site is readily available, and catering for the numbers which would need to be taken to make a significant impact on the US problem would swamp the more inhabited islands or turn the less-habitated ones into ghettos, even if water supply difficulties could be overcome. We would have to ensure that the camp had decent facilities, to meet international obligations and forestall possible criticism. But, in doing so, we would run the risk of inviting more Haitian refugees to target the islands.
SECRET