U.S. Pushes for Haitian Resettlement Plan : Refugees: Other nations urged to take in expatriates. More than 1,000 fleeing country’s latest coup have been interdicted at sea.

The number of Haitian refugees interdicted at sea in the past few weeks climbed past 1,000 Friday as Bush Administration officials scrambled to work out a resettlement plan with three Central American nations that have agreed to accept some of the boat people.

Venezuela, Belize and Honduras have each agreed to take in a few of the refugees, some of whom have been held aboard U.S. Coast Guard cutters idling near the Windward Passage for more than two weeks.

Under a plan that was first outlined Thursday by State Department officials, those refugees who do not qualify for political asylum in the United States would be shipped to the Dominican Republic for processing, then assigned to host countries in the region. Resettlement would take place under auspices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

As of Friday, 1,038 Haitians in 19 boats had been picked up by the Coast Guard since Oct. 29. About half have been taken to the U.S. Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, while half remain camped on the decks of one of four Coast Guard cutters in the area. They are the first Haitians to flee that impoverished nation since the Sept. 30 military coup which ousted democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The agreements with third countries to offer temporary homes to the boat people seems to satisfy the Administration’s desire “to deal with the problem on a regional basis,” as State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday.

However, members of Congress, as well as Haitian refugee advocates in Miami and New York, have criticized the plan. Sen. Connie Mack, a Florida Republican, called U.S. treatment of Haitians “morally wrong.” Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and other members of the Black Caucus described it as racist.

They and others have called for the Haitians to be brought to the United States. The Administration is reluctant to do that, however, fearing it will touch off a massive exodus from a country still in turmoil following the coup.

Refugee advocates contend the number of people fleeing Haiti poses no threat to the United States. “The State Department has manufacturered a sense of urgency that does not exist and has held these people in political limbo,” charged Arthur C. Helton, director of the refugee project of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York. “Political leaders see that this is a bankrupt approach that does not correspond to social needs. And the numbers which other countries have decided to accept indicates they are skeptical.”

The State Department has not commented on the number of refugees each country would accept. But according to Helton, reports indicate that Belize would resettle 100, Venezuela 200, and Honduras 300.

The first group of 19 Haitians was intercepted Oct. 29. Over the subsequent two weeks they were joined by 1,019 others, all trying to make the 600-mile crossing from Haiti to the United States in wooden sailboats. Under the interdiction policy instituted under the Ronald Reagan Administration in 1981, Haitians seeking asylum in the United States are given a brief interview aboard ship, and if fears of political persecution are deemed by Immigration and Naturalization Service officers to be unfounded, they are returned to Haiti.

In the past 10 years, almost 24,000 Haitians have been interdicted at sea. Of those, only 28 have been allowed into the United States.

However, 38 of the first 500 Haitians interviewed in the latest wave will be brought to the United States to pursue asylum claims, according to the INS.