Refugees Headed to Cuba; Protest Planned

The Coast Guard ferried 13 refugees back toward Cuba on Saturday as angry exiles planned civil disobedience to protest President Clinton’s reversal of 35 years of U.S. refugee policy.

A Coast Guard cutter transferred the refugees from a Caribbean cruise ship just before midnight Friday, but the Guard disclosed few details about where the men were being taken.

“We really, truly don’t know,” Lt. Cmdr. Pat Philbin, chief of Coast Guard media in Washington, said Saturday. “We don’t know which port we’re going to. The details are being worked out as we speak.”

The refugees would be the first to be repatriated under the policy that has angered Cuba’s exile community, whose leaders met Saturday to map a response.

“We would like for Miami to indicate to the rest of the nation this community’s outrage,” said Francisco Pepe Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation. “The only way we can do it is by peaceful means. If it means stopping the whole community’s activity for a couple of days, that would be an effective message.”

The Coast Guard picked up the 13 men from the Majesty of the Seas cruise ship, whose crew found them adrift in two boats south of Little Cayman Island late Wednesday.

The men--ages 28 to 45--were given food, water and medical attention, though they appeared to be in good health.

Justice Department officials, who were not immediately available for comment Saturday, said earlier that the men would be interviewed by immigration agents if they expressed “fear of persecution.”

Under the policy announced Tuesday, about 21,000 Cuban refugees detained at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be allowed to come to the United States.

But the Administration said it would repatriate all future rafters who try to flee Fidel Castro’s Communist Cuba.

The refugees departed 15 days ago from Cuba’s southern coast, said Hernandez, who had spoken to one of the men by phone. Exile leaders said their destination may have been the Cayman Islands or Jamaica.