Airlift setback as Nicaragua closes borders
Passengers bound for Miami practice social distancing (Photo by Paul Tibbetts) 
CAL aircraft bound for Miami on 17 April (Photo by Paul Tibbetts) 
Pilots for the Miami evacuation flight on Friday (Photo by Paul Tibbetts) 
Gate staff wear facemasks (Photo by Paul Tibbetts) 
Crew for the Miami evacuation flight on 17 April (Photo by Paul Tibbetts) 
Air Traffic staff at Owen Roberts Airport on Friday (Photo by Paul Tibbetts) 
CAL aircraft bound for Miami on 17 April (Photo by Paul Tibbetts)
(CNS): Two evacuation flights to Nicaragua planned for Saturday been cancelled. They would have flown home almost 160 Nicaraguan nationals who have been stuck in the Cayman Islands since the borders here were closed a month ago. Cayman Airways said it had been informed Friday that the Nicaraguan Government had closed its borders and tomorrow’s charters would not be able to go ahead. Governor Martyn Roper revealed the bad news at the regular COVID-19 briefing today.
“It is with regret that the Nicaraguan Government have this morning closed their borders and will not be accepting the return of their citizens,” he said. “This is incredibly disappointing, given that we had close to 160 people booked on Cayman Airways flights to Managua tomorrow. The Nicaraguan Government will reconsider the opening of their borders once the global crisis has eased.”
Roper said he had spoken to Nicaragua’s foreign minister twice on Friday morning but he was not prepared to accept the flight because the government there believed that in order to keep its people safe, it must keep the borders closed to everyone.
However, the governor said those Nicaraguan people who would have left tomorrow will be assisted. “I appreciate that many people who booked on those flights may now find themselves stuck on Island without accommodation and funds,” he said.
Meanwhile, Cayman Airways said its reservations agents are in the process of contacting the affected passengers about the cancellation of the Managua repatriation flights. They can also call 949-Passengers to receive a refund back to their original form of payment for their tickets.
Despite that bad news, two flights did depart for the United States taking people to Miami. One of those flights also returned around 80 Caymanians who have gone into government mandated quarantine.
A flight from Grand Cayman to Canada being organised by the Canadian government is still schedule to leave Monday. Anyone who wishes to get on that evacuation flight should register online here (Registration of Canadians Abroad) and click on the link “online registration”.
The governor also confirmed that a second British Airways charter flight from London will be coming to Cayman the week starting 27 April. It will bring more medical and other supplies as well as a few more Caymanians still stuck in the UK. Seats will be available for the return leg and details of how to get on that air-bridge will be revealed next week, Roper said.
He stressed that people should not call the hotline regarding this particular flight.
Those who were due to leave on the Nicaraguan charter and are now in need of urgent support are asked to contact government directly.
Work permit holders
Tel: 244 8000 or email cigcovidsupport@gov.ky
The helpline is open seven days a week. Applications for assistance are also available at all supermarkets and gas stations.
Residents
Tel: 946 0024 or email nauinfo@gov.ky
See the press briefing on CIGTV below, set to start where the governor talks about the evacuation flights:
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Category: Local News
Blame it on Trump not China
Bunch of xenophobic locals who seem to know everything are all over this comment board.
CIG, let’s just wait and see if this causes problems (hundreds of homeless, hungry, and scared Nicaraguans) then we can deal with it. Boom! Now you have thousands of homeless, hungry and angry Jamacians at the same time because of the no working stay at home to save our elderly plan. Now what? UK military coming in and no place to put all the homeless, no food for the hungry, and still no plan for the future. And no one seeing this coming. If Cayman can’t put them to work and Can’t send them home then what does it think will happen? Only some of the elderly will be safe. Everyone else will be victim or victors. Everyone still here. Empty Expat homes will be the new shopping centers. Stores will be empty. and the prison is still over crowded. Will CIG finally do something then?
The solution is easy and is set out in Law. All persons who have no basis to remain here, should leave. Government can readily apply appropriate pressure to ensure the borders of Jamaica, Nicaragua and Honduras are reopened to their own citizens.
Apply appropriate pressure to ensure the borders are reopened? Who do you think we are, the US? The governments of Jamaica, Nicaragua and Honduras dont give a damn what the government of Cayman thinks.
They will if their citizens cannot get any work permits again, and all remittances are taxed to cover the expense of maintaining their citizens that are here.
What pressure? They couldn’t care less.
Thunderdome
Read the Gleaner Article posted at 12.08 below. Stop dancing on words. Fact: do not accept repatriation of your own citizens, no more visas. That was all that was ever suggested.
In the future, the Cayman Islands Government has to review its work permit process, towards those countries that refused to take their OWN citizens during this time. It says a lot about these countries. Make it harder to have a work permit for anyone from those countries.
Our Govt should offer to test the passengers for the virus before allowing them on the plane. That might dampen the argument for Nicaragua not accepting them.
Nicaragua has no argument to refuse entry to its own citizens. No country does.
I agree in theory but in practise this is a political though immoral position.
Too many Hondurans wanted on the flights
We had over 550 Nicaraguan permits as of last November.
And some will have had dependents, so the number is higher than that.
Unfortunately they refused their own nationals and Cayman has to do the same thing USA told Jamaica and recently told Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. Hey listen we run things and not things running we. You must accept your deportees or face the risk of diplomats losing their visas and also no visas to be issued to any of the countries. Cayman can say hey listen all these people work permits have been canceled and cannot remain in our country and no new ones will be issued upon our country being reopened
It’s not the people’s fault!
They are all democracies. Their governments are all accountable to them. We are not.
Hahaha. Russia is a democracy too. So is Zimbabwe. So is Hungary….. your point? In fact, Nicaragua has a lower score on the democracy index then Honduras..
All governments are responsible for their citizens.
Sure. They care so much they let their countries go to crap so their people have to leave and find work abroad.
And other countries can and should refuse to accept their citizens if it means having to risk being stuck with them.
12.32pm Where do we stand now that Alden is Our Leader?.
In a police state
I am sure the head of the Nicaraguan regime will lose sleep over us threatening to deport his ambassador and diplomatic core (who?) or stop granting work permits to his people. Even Jamaica – think they are going to lose sleep over what – 15000 ?- Jamaicans losing work permits? Hell we can’t even threaten to not build a cruise ship pier anymore 😉
You’re right about the others but Jamaica might care; what does that workforce remit each year? $50m? supporting probably 30,000 Family?
Yet, like many countries, including our own, they can close their airport/borders and accomplish the same thing. I’ll let you take that to the ICHR.
No, arrangements are in place for all residents to come, and they are.
Almost nowhere civilised is closed for the repatriation of their own citizens.
Good idea
It takes days and dozens of people, and full clinical capacity to run just a handful of pcr tests, and why would it matter on an outbound flight?!?
But does Nicaragua even have a functioning government at this time?
Their Coronavirus national numbers are dead wrong (and totally unreliable!); while the President Daniel Ortega is reportedly dead as he’s not been seen or heard from in over a month.
He has since reappeared in public for his “act of God” speech…still alive and defiant a**hole.
That’s not how governments work to send people back and forth between counties, might want to take some poli-sci or geo-politic classes in this free time.
That is exactly how they work, particularly in times of emergency. Something to do with citizenship and borders. I think you need some geography and law classes.
nicaraguan government is obviously a step ahead of the cayman government …who are soley responsible for the introduction of the virus to these islands
If it Soooooo god there then I ask what the hell are you doing here where it is soon bad.
Oh wait, your wrong…….. we got real money here.
Thanks for the reminder……..
Jackass…….
Every civilised country in the world is open to the return of it’s own citizens. You apparently want Cayman to copy the very worst, backwards examples of governance.
Idiot
Very sad news for those wanting to leave and go home. No country should be allowed to turn away their own people.
No country is allowed to turn away its own citizens.
Policed by who?
Nicaragua’s foreign minister does not appear to consider the safety and wellbeing of the citizens that are outside of the country to be equally as important as the safety and wellbeing of the citizens that are within the country itself. Let’s hope that the foreign minister, in refusing to accept his citizens, has at least made a commitment to provide the required financial support for his citizens until he decides that it is safe for them to return home.
This must be a mistake. Daniel Ortega’s worker’s paradise government wouldn’t forsake his people this way.
No surprise here, what else would one expect from a Marxist Communist government!
Well sounds like they are going to help with finances which is more than Alden doing for his own people.
Which planet are you living on? Our Needs and Assistance Unit “NAU” and other government agencies are providing assistance with Food and other living expenses to most that apply including expatriates!
I know many persons that work in the Tourism sector that are being help with basic needs.
When Cayman Airways provides provides travel at a discount, who you think picks the difference if Cayman Airways are owed by the Cayman Islands government? Answer, we the taxpayers of the Cayman Islands.
Why doesn’t the Marxist President Ortega make these sacrifices for his people in the Cayman Islands?
People of Cayman don’t want to have to go to NAU and would rather work for a living. How long do you think CIG can keep that valve open..Do you think they are growing money on trees?
This is a way to control people and let them think you did something for them especially with elections looming in our near future.
I have always worked for a living and I will starve before I go and bow down at the NAU feet to beg for food.
Caymanians are used to helping each other out in times of need. This new mentality of socialism that has been imported into Cayman will bleed us to death financially.
Why too prideful? Hmm, isn’t that a sin or something?
Ever wondered why Nicaragua with its national flag carrier NICA Airlines, with a fleet of 2 Boeing 737 main destinations are Havana and Caracas?
That’s great news. Maybe they can start with the school aged kids that are forced to forage through the dump each day to try to earn food money.
Easy solution:
No more work permits for the nationals of any country that refuses to accept back their own nationals. It is a breach of international law, and creates to great a risk for Cayman.
We need to take care of these people, but their governments need to be sent the bill!
So far Jamaica, Honduras and Nicaragua are on the list.
Jamaica tried the same crap on the USA in the last week. Trump suggested that may mean no more visas and suddenly flights from the USA were allowed to land.
Did Trump direct his comments to Jamaica?
Yes…
Please share the footage of the speech in which he did so. Must have missed me.
Not every aspect of the implementation of US foreign policy passes the lips of the President on television.
Clearly you missed the reason for my question. When I asked if his comments where directed to Jamaica you said “yes” and when I asked for proof you could only manage to pen that BS above. If you are so privy to the conversation between world leaders please provide proof of Jamaica denying to take its deportees from USA, and also proof of Jamaica specifically being mentioned as stated in your previous response. Sadly, misinformation is spread largely due to the rash assumptions and misinterpretation of people on a daily basis.
Now unlike you, I’ve looked into your claims and have found numerous articles of Jamaica preparing to accept the deportees and reaffirming its responsibility to accept deportees. Here’s one such article:
https://www.loopjamaica.com/content/62-deportees-arrive-jamaica-us-next-week
As for the words Trump spoke regarding the order please see this excerpt with source attached:
President Trump issued a memo on Friday night directing Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, to notify Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of any nation that refused to coordinate with the United States on such deportations. At that point, Mr. Pompeo will have seven days to impose visa sanctions, which would make it tougher, if not impossible, for those countries to get U.S. visas for their citizens.
“Countries that deny or unreasonably delay the acceptance of their citizens, subjects, nationals or residents from the United States during the ongoing pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 create unacceptable public health risks for Americans,” Mr. Trump wrote in the memo
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/us/coronavirus-live-updates.amp.html
Do you see the names of countries being called? I believe you became misinformed due to the known fact that certain countries will always have deportees in the USA, the various media outlets and maybe conversations with friends/ family that corrupted your knowledge of the situation, and your own feelings (known or unknown) towards these countries.
From your stance it seems as if you’ve never conducted any sort of purposeful academic research as you would have understood the importance of validating your claims. Please play your part in decreasing the spread of misinformation. There are ppl reading these comments who are unable to determine the truth for themselves either out of ignorance and or illiteracy.
I’m not defending anyone, just annoyed that you make such claims without any evidence.
I never claimed the visa threat was made only to Jamaica, nor did I say that we should should withhold work permits only from Jamaicans.
All your research confirms is that what was initially posted was true.
Yes, but he actually knew it to be true. You looked like you just heard it or read it stated. Not sure why thumbs are favouring you in this situation; the other poster is the one I would listen to.
See Jamaica Gleaner article.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20200413/us-visa-sanctions-countries-block-deportations
Thank you, I’ve read it and I dont see where specific countries were named. That’s the point I’m getting at. We need to stop spreading misinformation at this time.
Could also add, no money transfers (even when the businesses reopen) to any country that has closed its borders to its own citizens.
We need to take the same approach as well
I agree with you and I wrote something similar to you as well. We can’t let other countries dictate to us about their nationals. We have nowhere to run as this is our country
12.41am Well a lot of Caymanians ran back from the UK on the BA flight even though a lot of Caymanians complained about them coming.
Mess with Trump. He’s their match.
If we hadn’t dithered so long they would have been in Managua by now. I hope these poor unemployed will get more than a single $150 food voucher to support them for the next 6 months.
Blame their government for not letting them in
And, after ten days or so, our government for not forcing the issue.
I would never call home a country that does not allow me to come back
7.50pm Look up the definition of dithering, they only closed the airport the day before the flight.
You can hate the government but love the country. See: America.
Govt needs to look after their own Caymanians first
Laughable nationalist drivel. You’ll be the first crying for help from the US or UK if it comes to it.
How? Expats do all the work and bring in all the money. How will Caymanians help Caymanians? Honest question.
How do you think we built this country before you came? Serious question.