Cuban Women Escape

26th May
Cuban Women Escape
By Candia Dames

Employing a method reportedly used by two Cuban men seven weeks ago, two
Cuban women cut their way out of the Carmichael Road Detention Centre in
the wee hours of Thursday morning, according to immigration authorities.

Officials identified the women as Anet Savia Gainza, 22, and Karina
Reyes Labra, 36.

According to an immigration official who spoke with the Bahama Journal
shortly after the break yesterday, the women broke out sometime between
3am and 4am.

Another senior official said he would not be surprised if there were a
waiting vehicle to drive the women away, and he said it would also not
be surprising if they are already off the island.

Police officers reportedly combed the neighbourhood around the centre
looking for the Cuban women, but were not able to find them.

Officials made no public announcements regarding the incident and were
quiet on the details throughout the day. But it is understood that there
are usually about seven Defence Force officers on night duty at the
facility, located in a residential area.

The Defence Force is responsible for security at the facility. Two
immigration authorities are also stationed at the centre during the night.

Back in April, three Cuban men, Jose Alvarez Garcia, 38; Victor Brito
Senea, 35; and Lazaro Acosta Ortiz, 33, also escaped from the centre by
cutting through three fences on the compound.

The fences were reportedly repaired after the April incident, but the
women were apparently able to make new holes of their own.

The official at the centre could not say yesterday what the women used
to cut through the fences.

The latest break has again refocused attention on security at the
facility, which received international media attention in March as two
Cuban dentists remained detained after more than 10 months at the facility.

During an incident at the centre back in December 2004 when a group of
Cuban immigrants reportedly set fire to one of the dorms, authorities
had vowed tighter security at the facility.

As a result of that incident, officials said 11 Defence Force officers
sustained injuries, mainly bruises and lacerations.

The Bahama Journal was able to confirm on Thursday that while some of
the Cubans allegedly involved in the 2004 incident had been repatriated,
a group of them still remains at the centre.

As of Thursday, there were 149 detainees at the centre, according to
immigration authorities.

That group included 39 Cubans (nine women); 66 Haitians; four Chinese;
one Dominican; one Guyanese; 24 Jamaicans; four Nigerians; one
Trinidadian; and two Turkish nationals.

Last year, the government appointed former Acting Prison Superintendent
Edwin Culmer director of the Detention Centre, but Mr. Culmer has
admitted that he has been ineffective in that role and has in fact asked
the government to relieve him of his duties.

Government officials have long viewed the centre as lacking in security.
After the April escape, Immigration Minister Shane Gibson said that the
government was looking for a piece of land on which it could possibly
build a new Detention Centre.

The latest break came a day after a report from Amnesty International,
which again referred to the treatment of detainees at the facility.

Detained asylum seekers and migrants were held in harsh conditions and
reportedly ill-treated, the report from the human rights watchdog said.

"There were continued reports of abuses against asylum seekers and other
detainees at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre," the report said.
"Inmates were reportedly beaten and received inadequate medical
attention, food and water. Asylum seekers were forcibly returned to
countries including Cuba and Haiti without access to a full and fair
determination procedure."

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