Cuban migrant bill reaches $1.4 million

| 22/06/2019 | 54 Comments
Cayman News Service
Cuban migrant boat (file photo)

(CNS): Government has said that in the first five months of this year it had already spent around $1.4 million holding Cuban migrants in and out of the detention centre, almost as much as the entire budget for 2018 of $1.6 million. Government closed the Immigration Detention Centre at Fairbanks six weeks ago as it aimed to accommodate Cubans seeking asylum in other non-custodial facilities. But the centre was reopened after the arrival of two Cuban men in East End earlier this month.

There are another 21 Cuban migrants seeking asylum who have been granted permission to enter Cayman. Seven are now living in approved accommodation around Grand Cayman while the others are housed temporarily at the Gun Bay Civic Centre.

Officials said that the move to accommodate some migrants outside the detention centre is in keeping with international guidelines to provide alternatives to placing the migrants and refugees in detention wherever possible.

Although they are not in custody, the migrants are subject to certain conditions: they must abide by all Cayman Islands laws, they must not tamper with the electronic tags they have been fitted with, and they must observe a nightly curfew between 9pm and 6am. The migrants are free to move about the island during the day and can request special permission to waive curfew, but none of the migrants are permitted to work.

Officials said that if they breach any of these conditions they could be returned to the IDC for a period of time or until the individual is repatriated or granted asylum.

Immigration officials also noted that Gun Bay Civic Centre is a publicly-owned facility that has space for beds, bathrooms and areas for cooking and exercise. It allows the government to temporarily provide for the basic needs of the migrants without having them remain in a detention setting. Alternative facilities may be used if and when they become available and other public buildings are being considered as potential accommodation should the public require use of the civic centre.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    According to the link below there are no refugees in Bermuda and 24 in Cayman (2017?)
    https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/sm.pop.refg

    It is not that people in Cayman against refugees, they are on a 2×4 rock and running out of available land for themselves.

    All refugees tell the same stories, regardless where they are from and where they seek an asylum, unless their country is ravaged by war.

    If there is plenty available land why not give people a chance? Russia is accepting migrants. People from Africa are happily living in Russian Yakutia https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hiqX8grANdo

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Why is Cayman following what the US does and others by allowing people into your country with an open door and all’s someone has to say is,”I’m seeking asylum.”? How many of these refugees are actually terrorists posing as Cubans to enter your country and start killing and be heading everyone and then take over your island? I am US and I can’t come to Cayman without paying $500,000 and filing papers and you let anyone else into your paradise AND force Caymans to pay for their food and shelter? Ship these fools off to another island before Cayman gets overrun with these street dwellers. Do you want your tourists to see these people wondering about? Tourists won’t feel safe and will go elsewhere! Ship them off immediately! They will only drain your government like they have done in the US! This is pathetic to feed and house people on other’s backs! Move them on and don’t fall for this!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Your comment reeks of Trumpist hate and division. You speak of desperate people escaping extreme poverty and repression as though they are monsters. You are the monster. You are disgusting. None of them are terrorists, none are going to kill us. You, on the other hand, want to lead the Cayman people into the darkness of hate. I bet you love Trump. Please stay in the US. We don’t want your kind here.

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      • Anonymous says:

        8:56 am, you are the fool. How do you know what they people are, check southern Florida to see if some of them is not terrorists and drug pushers and even killers, so why don’t you take some of them in your house and support them, come on do it, or are you only blabblang off

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    • Anonymous says:

      I don’t think they are terrorists. Limited land supply is the biggest problem in this country, when it comes to asylum seekers. More unskilled people will not afford a unit in the “iconic tower”, therefore they would need to live on the land somewhere and the supply is limited.

    • Anonymous says:

      7:am, we agree with you 100% and who don’t agree is a fool

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Something is wrong big time with those figures, but no one is held accountable with this Government, in the U S A, some people will be in jail. If nothing is wrong then the Govt . Should make public item by item to add up to that huge sum, after all its the people money and they should have to give account how and where it is spent.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Caymankind yeah right…
    Unless your Cuban or gay

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Give each boat that arrives fuel and let them continue on.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Spend it on your own. Too many ungrateful persons sucking up what should be spent on our very own.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Great example of Christian love. Do you read the Bible? Clearly you do not understand it.

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        • Anonymous says:

          God helps those who help themselves, my mother used to say.

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        • Anonymous says:

          8:57 am, take some of them in your house and support them, ok.
          You won’t do that, you are just blowing off steam, and talking s…

  6. Anonymous says:

    During the 2013/14 fiscal year, the cost of housing, feeding and caring for the migrants in Cayman was more than $500,000. http://www.cubademocraciayvida.org/web/print.asp?artID=25442

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    • Anonymous says:

      why did it jump to 1.4mil in the first five months of this year? There were more detainees in 2013/14 according to the article.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    thats peanuts to cayman…a great christian nation….

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Offer them $25000 and a ticket to Honduras. It would be much cheaper but I guess the whole Cuban nation would show up next.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    our fearless leader should be ashamed of himself

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  10. Anonymous says:

    12k per month per person ? They must be fed caviar each day and sleep on organic cotton sheets getting full body massage. What the Auditor General thinks?

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    • Anonymous says:

      1:33 pm, under the table and kick backs, but Caymanians don’t understand

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    • Anonymous says:

      there were an article which i can’t find that was giving some details and back than people were already questioning the choice of vendors and services

  11. Anonymous says:

    Disgrace, absolutely a disgrace how foreigners can come in to Cayman and demand their rights when they can’t demand it in their country and cost us the tax payers millions, when at the same time some Caymanians are hurting badly for funds.

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    • Anonymous says:

      You sound like a true caymanian christian.

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    • Anonymous says:

      @12:37 – and here you have it folks……a prime example of Caymankind.

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      • Anonymous says:

        6:13 pm and 8:49 pm, why don’t you give them a few thousand each month.

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      • Anonymous says:

        They all take our kindness for weakness. But I hope to live long enough to see the cart turn and all hell break loose. I am a born Caymanian, one of those, who will have to get a piece of paper confirming that I am Caymanian, when expats who come here are now more Caymanian than any of us. Figure the lop-sided and twisted government/laws that marginalize us.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Caymanian coffers are bursting according to your government.

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    • Anonymous says:

      true caymankind.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Liberals would want this number to be at least 10 times greater.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Liberals would want to treat anyone who’s trying to better themselves with some respect and humanity. Liberals would actually like the number to be zero by doing other preventative measures but unfortunately conservatives block those measures… like forcing a woman to have a baby when she doesn’t want it. Also, looks like these migrants are still cheaper than that stupid boardwalk in South Sound.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Shouldn’t we be tired of harbouring poverty? The Cayman of yesterday has deteriorated because of importees. The life they live in the countries from whence they came, is what is portrayed here. Is that what we need ? No. We are encouraging greater liability. Send them on their merry way. Charity begins at home. Thake care of your own first.

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    • Anonymous says:

      As a liberal, I’m wondering why Cuba isn’t footing the bill.

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  13. Common Sense says:

    When outsiders come into your country they will take either your job or your money. Which one do you prefer?

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    • Anonymous says:

      You are either to dumb to be an accountant or you are to lazy to clean a yard.
      That is the reason why.
      Caymanians woukd still be fishing if it weren’t for the foreigners.

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      • Anonymous says:

        All the good Cubans went to Miami. These are still fishing now, so what do they add?

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      • Anonymous says:

        And that’s a bad thing?

      • Anonymous says:

        6:16 pm, we was doing good before you came, if you don’t like us and cayman in general, what are you doing here, you must be the the dumb fool, for staying here just for the money and getting all stressed out and may give you a heart attack, i hope not, be happy and healthy, have a nice day my friend

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        • Anonymous says:

          Easy there. Next thing you know they’ll be accusing you of xenophobia for speaking facts.

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    • Anonymous says:

      go independent then…..oh yeah…sorry i forgot that caymanians haven’t got the stones to that or that ability to run their own affairs.

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      • Anonymous says:

        6:53am, why you are so angry, its better if you just leave and go back to your wonderful country and be happy and stress free, my friend just go and we will try to make it without you, thanks for leaving.

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        • Anonymous says:

          In case you don’t know, during the 1960s -1980s Caymanians held jobs and ran the government. We made it well then and others paved the way for a lot of rejcts to surface on our shores and lay claim. What are you going to do when the tide falls.

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        • Anonymous says:

          nah….life is great here being an expat…great expat community.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    How many are there? 23? $280,000 a month? $12,194 per person? Can they provide details? Line by line expenses naming vendors and service providers.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I think they have to factor in the guards? Oh and they have to factor in all the paper pushers in civil service they have to pay to get them documented.

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    • Anonymous says:

      If those numbers are right, it would be comparable to putting them up in a beachfront Residence at the Ritz or Caribbean Club, with WiFi, housekeeping, butler, and concierge desk. Someone’s aggressively feathering their nest…

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