269 Cuban migrants wait on immigration process

| 31/10/2022 | 21 Comments
Boat used by Cuban migrants, 21 September 2022 (photo courtesy of the CBC)

(CNS): Following the arrival of another four boats carrying 28 more Cuban migrants over the last five days, Customs and Border Control confirmed that there are now 269 men and women awaiting repatriation, the result of asylum claims or general processing. Officials said that 86 of these people are still on Cayman Brac, most of whom arrived over the last few weeks. According to CBC releases, this month 99 Cuban migrants came ashore here in October having run out of food or fuel or due to unseaworthy vessels.

Between Wednesday and Friday, 26 men and women arrived on the Brac in three vessels. Three of the migrants who arrived on Thursday required medical attention for dehydration.

Then at around 10:00pm on Saturday, 29 October, the authorities found two men who had come ashore in a boat in East End, Grand Cayman.

No Cubans have been repatriated to Havana since before the pandemic when the borders both here and in Cuba were closed, even though Cuba reopened its borders almost one year ago. The Cayman authorities have still not said why none of the migrants being held here whose asylum claims were refused have been returned.

Some of the 269 migrants have been in Cayman since before the pandemic. Many of them are in CBC custody and a number are living in the community.


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Category: Local News

Comments (21)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    These people are rude and ungrateful. Just send them on their way. We do not need more to feed and abuse our kindness.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    What is there to process, just deport them.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    don’t know bout y’all but I’ve been 🤔 thinking, I might just float 🛟 in on an old tire and a bedsheet strung up to a bamboo driftwood, a few old bottles of piss and barbed wire…sure we got some people flying in and rafting out, I’ll do it in perfect English so they get the idea 💡 of how this works.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Belize is not a BOTC. We have to abide by UK rules.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Belize can send them back in a few days, why Cayman dont do the same ?. Is it because certain people is making money ?, for they have to eat and drink and use toilet paper etc.

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  6. Send em back fast says:

    Sorry to pop everybodys liberal bubble but 88% of these “Refugees” are hard core crimninals. What to talk facts, just look at those who were given status here, 79% have been convicted for theft, burglary, assault, corruption and drugs. So much for the good they do.
    Hell even in Miami Florida the Cubans up there dont want them because they KNOW what kind of criminals these people are and the damage they will do.
    Grow up MLA’S, stop listening to the moronic liberals who think tge world is all flowers and hallucigenic mushrooms.
    If you dont then you political legacy will be the destruction of Cayman
    Same thing with this Work Permit fiasco, its a corrupt situation and getting worse.

    Whats your legacy gonna be?

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  7. Anonymous says:

    None of that will actually work. Make a deal with Honduras or someone to let them in, and just fly them over there. Very few are really seeking political asylum, it’s just the only option you give them other than back to Cuba. Cuba doesn’t give a damn about them and is not holding up their end of your deal with them. It all becomes very expensive. You need plan b. Don’t overcomplicate this.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Cuba is a lot like the Caymans….. They have never had the right leadership!

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    • Anonymous says:

      We are not the Caymans !!!!!!!!!

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      • Anonymous says:

        Check Wikipedia. It says right there “ to be referred to as the Caymans, after the caimans present there.”

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        • Anonymous says:

          Actually you misquote Wikipedia.

          “He [Columbus] named them ‘Las Tortugas’ due to the large number of turtles found on the islands (which were soon hunted to near-extinction); however, in the succeeding decades the islands began to be referred to as the Caimanas or Caymanes, after the caimans present there.”

          Spelling, and context, are interesting things.

    • Cayman Mon says:

      Anon at 8:29am. You are an abject numbskull.How do you explain Cayman, up to now, being the standout nation in the Caribbean. You obviously did not have anything to do with our success.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    We welcome them. Our world class civil service and commit to them that they will be treated in exactly the same way as investors and private sector businesses.

    No one will answer their calls.

    No one will understand the processes they must follow.

    No one will deal with their applications in a timely manner.

    If the applications are dealt with, the outcome will be arbitrary.

    They can however go to the public beach in and sell street food and play loud music to their heart’s content. There is even some good prospect of scoring some weed.

    Lots of people will make a lot of money while the civil service does nothing. Think of all those bottles of water to supply – and the food – lots of that, every day. Let’s make sure we can keep them here as long as possible! Not in any clean or safe conditions though. That would cost us too much with too few profiting. Then – when they have had enough – let’s let them escape through our tightly controlled border. This is going to be great! Hurricane season almost done. Christmas will be epic! Feliz Navidad!

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  10. Anonymous says:

    Cayman has no one to blame. Refugees should be given immediate asylum hearings. Refugees denied political asylum then should be offered immediate deportation or, if they want to appeal, detention.
    If Cuba refuses to take rejected asylum seekers, they should be taken to theUK, for Cayman, being a tiny island, is practically unable to accommodate ever growing number of Cubans.
    This arrangements with the Mother Land should have been made decades ago.
    Another option is to build a large detention facility on Brac.
    All refugees in distress must be fed and medical assistance provided.

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    • Corruption is endemic says:

      Maybe we can build a large detention facility on the Brac or under the Go East Initiative and import asylum seekers from other countries. Nauru and Rwanda have both done it already.

      Would be a brand-new industry…

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