PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Tightened sanctions and a liberalized U.S. refugee policy are encouraging thousands of Haitians to take to the seas in a stunning exodus that shows no sign of diminishing.


The wave of refugees -- 3,155 have been intercepted since Friday -- has swamped U.S. processing facilities in Jamaica and forced the Clinton administration to reopen a refugee tent city at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.


U.S. officials were reluctant to say the tide has crested. One diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Haiti has enough boats for 100,000 people.


"Haitians know they have a chance on the seas," Port-au-Prince mayor Evans Paul said Tuesday. "In Haiti there is none."


The U.S. coast guard returned 170 refugees to Haiti on Tuesday, and another 168 were due to be shipped back Wednesday. Some of the returnees said they misunderstood Clinton's new refugee policy to mean that they would be ferried by coast-guard cutters to Miami.


The surge was partly prompted by new, stiffer economic sanctions that were seen as a way to defer a decision on invading Haiti.


But some Haitian legislators said the flood of refugees will increase pressure on President Clinton to intervene militarily to oust Haiti's coup leaders, restore constitutional government, and attempt to halt the flow of boat people. Clinton has said only that military action has not been ruled out.


The international community has tried to rid Haiti of its military rulers since the 1991 overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's first democratically elected president. Aristide supporters say the flow of refugees reflects discouragement over prospects for Aristide's return, as well as worsening economic conditions in what was already the Americas' poorest country.


The surge follows Clinton's liberalized refugee policy implemented June 16, under which chances of winning asylum have jumped from 5 percent to 30 percent.