Dozen migrants leave Cayman illegally, says CBC
(CNS): The Customs and Border Control Service (CBC) has said that an investigation is currently underway into a report that a dozen undocumented migrants who were in Cayman awaiting processing have left the jurisdiction illegally. The group includes ten Cuban nationals as well as two Ethiopians who were mistreated and smuggled here against their will by people traffickers.
CBC officials have not elaborated on the circumstances under which the twelve people left or said when this happened.
Officials found the two Ethiopian refugees, Kedir Osama Musa and Tilahum Assafa Bruke, locked under the deck of a sailing boat registered in the UK that landed in Cayman Brac in May. The captain of the boat and his wife were recently jailed for human trafficking but cannot be named at this stage for legal reasons.
Musa and Bruke have said they were forced to escape Ethiopia in fear for their lives because of the conflict and political unrest in that country. According to the court case against the couple who were jailed, they suffered “cruel and degrading treatment” while on board the boat, which had sailed all the way from Cape Verde.
The two men had paid the captain and his wife, both British nationals, around US$4,500 to go to Brazil. But the boat ended up in Cayman Brac in mid-May. CBC officers raided it and found the two Ethiopian men locked in the cabin.
As refugees, the Ethiopian men could not be returned to their native land. Although they were not in custody, they were under the supervision of immigration officials, alongside Cuban nationals in Cayman awaiting asylum claims or deportation, including the ten who left the jurisdiction with them.
It is not clear if the Ethiopians were seeking asylum, given that they had not chosen to travel to the Cayman Islands. However, under international rules dealing with refugees, those fleeing from wars or other political dangers in their home country must seek asylum in the first safe country that they reach.
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Category: Local News
We Caymanians soon be going with them
.to the Border!!
caymanians want everyone off the island, so why is this news? CIG has saved on processing related expenses and the caymanians got what they constantly cry about.
This is a huge blow to the Cayman Olympic Committee’s dream of achieving a middle distance medal in the next games.
Did they leave during the storm?
I hope not.
I think we should extradite them all. Bring them back to face charges of leaving illegally and then deport them. Nothing else makes sense!
Obviously readers/posters here don’t get sarcasm. Not surprising actually.
Some jokes just aren’t funny.
Were they kidnapped by aliens? Nobody cares if they’re alive?Caymankind.
It is no surprise they left. They were not locked in solitary confinement or in a high security prison. Neither are they refugees, they are migrants who do not meet the qualifying criteria to migrate to the US or other country legally. This island was not their destination, just on their route to their next home. I wish them well.
May all the others follow and free up the space and money being wasted on them.
We don’t know that the Cubans wouldn’t meet US parole program criteria. Getting to the US is the harder part.
If only we here in America could have that problem, leaving, imagine that.
12 undocumented people just leave? Huh?
Well done and good luck to them, hope they find their freedom and safe lives.
Please do not spend any time or expense looking for them.
Our borders are more fluid than the tub of vasaline in JohnJohns trunk. No pun intended
The CBC are absolute monsters, detaining recently abused human beings for months without any legal cause, or empathy. Disgraceful. Glad someone got them back on their way…hopefully in a plane.
They are not even close to monsters, you twit. They are following the laws of the Cayman Islands. You don’t like those laws, then you lobby the government and your representatives/MPs for change. That is like blaming the RCIPS for issuing a speeding ticket. It is part of what they were hired and mandated to do.
Compass says they left via boat. If that is the case , amazing they had the resources to organize a vessel , fuel , logistics including navigation to depart Cayman by sea with adequate water and food for a passage to Central America…without being detected .
What should be alarming about this case is that if persons can leave clandestinely then they can also arrive clandestinely… and therein lies the danger.
There are those of us who hold the view that our borders are too porous. We can do something about this by improving how we safeguard our space. Why are we not using drones in tandem with the other means employed at present? let us not fool ourselves, the same canoes which bring drugs can also bring arms and as been demonstrated in the case of the two Ethiopians…”human cargoes.” In a ‘borderless’ world where transnational crime, especially human trafficking has become ‘par for the course’ let us in these islands endeavour not to be fooled into thinking “that it cannot happen here”.
And they didn’t have help in leaving…’clandestinely’..
Every day you can see the Cuban dandy boys traipsing about Bodden Town unsupervised. So let’s get real. CIG is happy for them to leave whether legally or illegally.
Thank god safe travels
Good! less for us to have to deal with.
This is so strange. At least with the Ethiopian pair…they were effectively trafficked here while trying to get to Brazil (why Brazil I dunno) and what was their status here? Locked up? Detained? Limbo? For how long? Indefinite?
So they left…and somehow that’s illegal? Wtf. If they’re not allowed to be here how is it against the law for them to leave?
Regardless of the details it’s pretty embarrassing for whatever world class branch of cig let this one side.
Woman
So they just “left the island”…Like WTF is really going on here. Immigration needs be overhauled just as badly as the judiciary, namely the DPP’s office.
I just realized the timing of this I hope they weren’t leaving by sea trying to ride in advance of the storm.
Another reason Cayman needs to process these ‘irregular immigrants’ faster. (Process them out, usually, and pay for a charter flight.)
It’s not nearly that simple as deciding to process faster or slower. Where Cuba is concerned, the government has to negotiate reparation of Cuban nationals. They aren’t allowed to just “send” them there. You think the government WANTS to keep and pay for Cuban refugees? Give me a break.
They need to revisit the MOU with Cuba and make the necessary adjustments, as this is insane.
LOL, how surprising they managed to leave ‘illegally’!!
If we have no mechanism to properly allow these refugees and migrants to join our community, we should not act as a hindrance to them trying to find a better life. In fact, we should assist them on their way so they can safely make it to where they want to go.
Good luck to them and any other refugees who manage make their way off the island!
The Ethiopians were here for 4 months so cant blame them for leaving (even though they are probably in for a tough onward journey).
Not really our issue that they freely chose to leave on their own.
Wish them best of luck.
It’s a result for CBC. 12 people they don’t have to feed and accommodate pending their asylum application processing, and in the case of the Ethiopians, likelyto be granted with the incidental political fallout of who then pays for them pending their managing to find a job here – assuming they did. And no doubt a nice cash bonus for whoever transported them off island.
You had one job…………….
Oops, our bad… We lost the folks in our custody. Cayman is such a joke – truly a worldwide laughing stock. No wonder Dart decided – ‘Gee, where is there a tax free haven where I can park my money, simply buy a country kind of like Manhattan Island, build a city (or 2) to live my life, and that has no clue of 1800’s+ laws, regulations and guidance – hey Cayman Islands sounds good!’
Actually his focus is now Anguilla that’s how bad it is.
If he is such a great mastermind, why does he just sit there watching his beachfront wash away?
I’m more concerned about people that CBC is allowing to land at our airport. Due to stories that I heard recently, people aren’t being screened properly.
Wow! CBC not screening properly… That’s a real new development.
He could care less for that property! Are you so stupid that he is still living there full time? It’s just another chess piece on the game he has been playing, and YOU are completely being outplayed by a Master Player. He and his team are so far beyond the CIG in forward thinking, and the electorate have a third grade intellect and like lemmings line up for the plunge over the cliff. Cayman needs to grow up quick – I’m not optimistic.