Cubans already exceeding 2005 arrivals

Cubans already exceeding 2005 arrivals
Monday, April 10, 2006

The number of Cuban migrants to reach Cayman territorial waters this
year has now surpassed the total figure for the full year of 2005. A
Cuban vessel with fifteen men and two women on board was spotted off the
coast of Cayman Brac Thursday, 6 April, bringing the total number of
migrants to reach Cayman waters since the start of January to around one
hundred and sixty-four, according to figures based on Government press
releases.

New guidelines on dealing with migrants that were introduced in January
2005 to discourage such arrivals appeared, initially, to have an effect.
Figures supplied by Chief Immigration Officer Franz Manderson indicated
that approximately four hundred Cubans arrived in 2004, dropping to 148
arrivals in 2005.

However, the number of Cuban rafters reaching these shores began to rise
at the end of last year, and at the start of 2006, there were
ninety-nine migrants in Cayman custody. With a steady flow of Cuban
vessels passing through or remaining in Cayman, the number of arrivals
this year looks set to top 2004 figures as well.

Almost 1,200 Cubans arrived in 1994, creating the “Cuban Crisis” that
was not resolved until early 1995. Between this time and prior to 2004,
only a few boats arrived each year. One hundred and thirty-eight Cubans,
including a number that arrived at the end of 2005, have been
repatriated to Cuba so far this year.

Under the current guidelines, migrants encountered in Cayman’s
territorial waters or who come ashore any of the three Islands are
refused permission to land and are not given assistance to enable them
to continue their journey. Those able to depart immediately and wishing
to do so are allowed to leave.

Otherwise, they are detained and repatriated to Cuba, unless they are
determined to be refugees under the 1951 United Nations Convention on
Refugees. The seventeen Cubans that passed the Sister Islands Thursday
were the twelfth recorded group this year.

They were in 24-ft wooden boat, said to be in good condition, which was
last seen off Little Cayman, heading in a south-westerly direction.
Eleven Cubans who stopped at Cayman Brac Monday, 3 April, initially
tried to continue their journey, but later returned. According to an
official release, the Cubans said they could not continue their journey
because of concerns about engine problems.

Tourists visiting Cayman Brac said they saw a Cuban vessel while they
were out diving on Sunday 2 April. The boat was leaving the west end of
Cayman Brac, heading towards Little Cayman. Humberto Suarez, who is
visiting the Brac for a week, said what appeared to be the same vessel
came through the cut on the south side and docked at the Channel Wharf
on Monday, around 9:00 am.

The same boat was seen in the sound heading east at 1:25 pm and then
again an hour and a half later heading west. Witnesses said the Cubans
were “bailing like mad” even in calm waters inside the sound. Mr Suarez
noted that the seas were very rough around Cayman Brac on both Sunday
and Monday. “I wish I could help.

I can’t see any lawful way to contribute to a charity or organization to
help those people. It breaks my heart to see them going out to sea in
those little boats. It’s as if nobody cares if they live or die. They
are people,” he said. Mr Suarez, a Cuban national who left Cuba in 1962,
said he has seen far worse vessels that the one he saw off Cayman Brac.

Some that reach Florida, where he lives, are just inner tubes, he said.
According to District Administration officials, the group was initially
held at the Cayman Brac Police Station, and transferred to Grand
Cayman’s immigration reception area Tuesday afternoon. The seven men and
four women in the group will be processed in accordance with
international conventions.

Meanwhile there has been no official word on the twenty-eight Cuban
asylum seekers who disappeared Sunday 19 March. The missing Cubans
included a group of twenty-seven (eleven females, nine males and seven
children), who had arrived in Grand Cayman on 9 December, 2005. Also
missing is Juan Guerra, who arrived on 13 April, 2005 and was relocated
to the centre after ten months HMP Northward.

Cayman Net News reported on 6 January that the group of twenty-seven had
made written allegations that they were forced to leave their vessel
after it was rammed and damaged by the Cayman Protector, the Drug Task
Force/RCIPS marine patrol vessel. They further claimed that Cayman
officers pointed guns at the group, which included eight children, and
threatened to sink their boat to force them to disembark.

They alleged that ten out of the original thirty-seven Cubans continued
on their journey, despite the fact that the Cayman enforcement boat
damaged their homemade craft. According to RCIPS Public Relations
Officer Deborah Denis, the matter is still under investigation.

nicky@caymannetnews.com
http://www.caymannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000009/000955.htm