CBC urges public to call 911 when migrants land

| 04/01/2023 | 15 Comments
Cayman News Service
Migrant boat that arrived 23 December 2022 (photo provided by the CBC)

(CNS): Three Cuban migrants who arrived on Grand Cayman were assisted by a private citizen when they landed along the Queen’s Highway in East End around 5am Monday. The Cayman Islands Customs and Border Control Service (CBC) said they understand that the community is sympathetic towards the migrants and may want to assist if they find them, but urged people to instead call 911 to allow the authorised first responders to assist.     

The latest addition of three Cuban men brings the number of migrants arriving in local waters since 23 December to 51 people. They are now under the supervision of the CBC and are being processed in accordance with established protocols.


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Category: Local News

Comments (15)

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  1. WISDOM says:

    This sole occurance proves how shamefull, weak and lackadaisical our Customs and Border Patrol IS.

    Full accountability is required as blatantly someone was asleep on the job at CBC when this illegal landing happened, and such personnel should be immediatly dismissed!

    Cayman is much too small of an island with such a large Police Force (largest in the entire Caribbean basin) and Civil Service- to expect local Civillians to do the Governments Job; which is to protect our borders and its Citizens from outside influences who could be terrorists and criminals disguised as illegal immigrants.

    Shame on our Premier and the Head of CBC for expecting private Civillians to Police our beloved Islands and to call them- should such event ever occur again!

    • Anonymous says:

      Both public stakeholders and CBC are relying on the absentee CI Coast Guard. Point the questions there.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Send them back! Would the premier care to comment on this growing problem?

    PACT is completely useless and failing us in every regard!

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  3. Island Time says:

    They need to sell one of the fancy helicopters and buy and airplane. You can purchase a Turbo prop that can go into the air for a minimum of 4 hours. They are faster, cheaper to purchase and cheaper to operate. There is absolutely no need for his island to own the helicopters they own considering what they do with them. In access of 20 million to purchase these 2 helicopters. You could purchase 1 helicopter and 1 airplane that will do a better job for less than 10 million. Let alone operating cost that would be 40% of what hey presently pay.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Drones

    • Anonymous says:

      Of course we could buy and install any number of toys, like a Tethered Aerostat Radar System in East End, but it still wouldn’t matter if nobody is willing to power these up, monitor the screens, and then intercept the targets. Keep in mind, tat the CICG are unable to find and intercept drug boats that are already in the North Sound, or caught off-guard by overturned boats, just meters off their clubhouse dock. We need to believe that the non-performance is so poor, that the Customs and Border Control are left to ask for the pubic’s help, as if we don’t have a fully funded and equipped Coast Guard already.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Cayman Islands Coast Guard motto, “To Save Lives & Protect Our Boaders (sic)”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands_Coast_Guard

    Who is Burnie Bush? Come on guys.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I mean it’s not their site, it’s Wikipedia. Why don’t you edit it and fix it?

      • Anonymous says:

        Hmmm…shouldn’t the Coast Guard polish their own image? or perhaps the full time CIG IT Departments that can’t seem to manage all the other web storefronts for CIG’s myriad departments? For 2023, can we not aim higher?

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        • Anonymous says:

          …you think that we should employ people in government to sit and troll wikipedia pages, that can be edited by anyone, at anytime, from anywhere around the globe?

          Please have an adult explain to you why that is a ridiculous expectation.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    CBC really should call out the Coast Guard for not having it’s (several) 100nm radars switched on 24/7, If for no other reason than they are being paid to do so by the public, to be competent and professional, and already have a sworn duty/obligation to secure our territorial marine perimeter as part of their remit. Of course the Coast Guard can’t be everywhere all at once, but there is no acceptable reason why they can’t be tracking every unscheduled intrusion into our nautical zone, and querying them in sequence, long before a dry foot lands on our soil. There’s just no excuse anymore to be surprised by illegal landings and smuggler intrusions. At some point this negligence has to be considered to be deliberate, and if so, on who’s instruction? Please report their names. Time’s up on this nonsense. We need to start firing people.

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    • Anonymous says:

      They essentially operate like the fire service only operating when a call comes through.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The fire service don’t have tools to trace origin of fires hours before combustion, but the CI Coast Guard have many independent radar arrays that they either aren’t using/know how to use, or have some competing instructions to switch them off to let things through without detection. Which one is it, and why?

    • Anonymous says:

      Any idea of what the radar reflection of one of these boats would be? Virtually non existent. You have no idea what you are talking about.

      • Anonymous says:

        With a flat plywood freeboard of 5-6 feet, it should return a strong ping from miles away. CICG’s Furuno is designed to pick up channel markers that are 1 m2, but it generally has to be switched on, with someone with eyeballs watching and adjusting gain.

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