Second Group of Haitian Refugees With HIV Flown Out of Cuba
MIAMI — A second group of Haitian refugees flew into Miami on Thursday after spending up to two years at a U.S. military camp in Cuba because they have the virus that causes AIDS.
Forty to 50 passengers were aboard the C-130 transport that landed at Miami International Airport just before 10:30 a.m., said Ron Tomalis, spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department.
The group was the second to arrive under a June 8 federal court order that ruled that the compound at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base was “an HIV prison camp” and had to be shut down.
On Monday, 27 Haitians, including six children, arrived in Miami. A dozen stayed in South Florida while the rest flew on to relatives or sponsors in New York, New Jersey and the Boston area.
More than 40,000 fleeing Haitians were intercepted at sea after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, was ousted in September, 1991. The Guantanamo camp opened the following month.
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