
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994                    TAG: 9406180209 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A9    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940618                                 LENGTH: KINGSTON, JAMAICA

U.S. APPROVES ASYLUM FOR 6 OF 35 HAITIANS

{LEAD} U.S. officials granted political asylum Friday to six of the first 35 Haitian boat people interviewed at sea under President Clinton's new policy.

Authorities rejected asylum for the other 29 Haitians because they were not deemed political refugees. They will be sent back to Haiti within several days, State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly said in Washington.

{REST} The six men granted asylum, clad in T-shirts, shorts and sandals, boarded a Navy transport plane in Kingston and flew to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba, for further processing.

The 35 Haitians had been picked up from three rickety boats in Haitian territorial waters. They were taken Thursday aboard the Comfort, a 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship anchored in Kingston Harbor.

Until May 8, Haitians fleeing by sea were returned to Haiti without interviews and told to seek political asylum at U.S. processing centers there. The United States maintained most were economic, not political refugees.

But as political violence escalated in the hemisphere's poorest country, Clinton revised the policy, allowing Haitian boat people a chance to argue their case for political asylum. The new policy was delayed while arrangements for shipboard interviews were made.

Those granted asylum Friday will be housed in Guantanamo while awaiting sponsors, such as family members or refugee centers. The base can hold 1,000 and is building quarters for another 1,000.

The Haitians also undergo medical screening.

{KEYWORDS} HAITI ASYLUM by CNB