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

DATE: TUESDAY, June 7, 1994                    TAG: 9406070310 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: D1    EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA  
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940607                                 LENGTH: ELIZABETH CITY

TWO MEN RESCUED AT SEA ALLEGEDLY ILLEGAL ALIENS

{LEAD} Immigration officials have determined that two men rescued off Cape Lookout are in the United States illegally.

The men, Easwar Persuad Ganase, 36, from Guyana, and Michel Joseph, 20, from the Bahamas, were released Sunday night by the U.S. Coast Guard here on condition they report to immigration authorities in Florida, officials said Monday.

{REST} Both men apparently have family connections in the Fort Lauderdale area, where officials believe they began a fishing trip that left them adrift for days to weeks after their engine failed, said William Bittner, the officer in charge at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Norfolk.

An immigration officer made the determination after more than two hours of interviewing the men, who changed their stories throughout the day.

``There were so many it was kind of frightening there for a while,'' Bittner said. ``It appeared the one most likely was that they came out of Fort Lauderdale.''

A passing tugboat alerted the Coast Guard early Sunday afternoon after spotting the 19-foot open boat drifting about 60 miles south of Cape Lookout. A four-man helicopter crew dispatched from Elizabeth City rescued the men, who were reported in excellent medical condition.

Ganase and Joseph presented a collection of conflicting stories and expired identification to Coast Guard officials, who called INS agents for assistance.

Ganase, carrying an expired Minnesota identification card, had apparently come to the United States in 1987 and applied for citizenship through his American wife. The marriage apparently fell through, Bittner said.

Joseph told authorities he had been in the country for years but might consider returning to the Bahamas, Bittner said.

Both men worked as day laborers, he said.

Coast Guard officials said Ganase and Joseph left the base near midnight Sunday. The men, who had been fed and provided with shoes, had enough money for a night's hotel stay, said Lt. Dan Taylor, the air station's public affairs officer.

``Where they stayed or where they've gone, we don't know,'' Taylor said Monday.

{KEYWORDS} U.S. COAST GUARD RESCUE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

by CNB