By Brent Fuller, brent@cfp.ky
Tuesday 10th April, 2007 Posted: 17:10 CIT (22:10 GMT)
More than a dozen Cuban migrants escaped from the Immigration Detention
Centre in George Town last week as the total number of detainees housed
at that facility swelled to 50.
Eleven of the 14 migrants that escaped were caught the same day, 5 April.
One of the three migrants who had remained on the loose turned himself
in this weekend, according to immigration officials.
The last two, who officials said were husband and wife, had not been
found as of press time Tuesday.
Chief Immigration Officer Franz Manderson said the large numbers of
detainees at the centre may have played a role in the escape.
"We normally keep it to 15 or 20 people," Mr. Manderson said. "There
were some delays in the cases of people who were scheduled to leave."
The incident came two weeks after some Cubans being kept at the centre
held a demonstration they said was in protest of living conditions there.
Officials at the Department of Immigration and Customer Service said
that protest was held after a failed escape attempt in which detention
officers seized several items from migrants they said were planning the
get–away.
Those items included a knife, screwdrivers, wrenches and a cell phone.
Mr. Manderson said an investigation is under way to determine how the
detainees got those items, which are prohibited to anyone housed at the
centre.
It's unclear whether any of the people involved in the 22 March protest
also took part in last week's escape.
The last escape from the Immigration Detention Centre occurred on
Christmas night last year when 25–year–old detainee Lester Camejo Suarez
ran away from the centre during routine outdoor exercises. He was caught
three days later without incident.
On the same day Mr. Suarez was recaptured, another Cuban man being kept
at the centre attempted suicide. He was hospitalised and was later put
under watch at the Central Police Station.
The detention centre is not operated as a full–security prison. It is
used by the Cayman Islands Immigration Department to temporarily house
migrants who are being held here awaiting repatriation to their homeland.
Mr. Manderson has previously said total staff at the centre fluctuates
between 10 and 12 people who work different shifts keeping watch on the
migrants.
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