Migrant stream continues as seven men land on Brac

| 09/05/2022 | 11 Comments
Cayman News Service
Cuban vessel stopped by the US Coast Guard 23 miles south of Florida on 1 May 2022. All aboard were repatriated to Cuba on 4 May (photo by the USCG)

(CNS): As the number of Cubans trying to leave Communist Cuba increases, the Cayman Islands Customs and Border Control Service (CBC) says another seven men arrived on Cayman Brac at around 8:15 Sunday morning aboard one vessel. For reasons not stated by officials, all of the men disembarked the boat and were processed in accordance with CBC’s established protocols.

No comment was made about their state of health. CBC now has 163 Cuban migrants in its care after a steady stream of arrivals since the beginning of the year.

Over the last two months alone around a dozen makeshift boats have arrived in local waters carrying people from Cuba who have opted to come ashore. Most of them land on Cayman Brac, the nearest Cayman Island to Cuba, or in East End on Grand Cayman.

The significant increase in the number of vessels arriving is causing concern for the CBC. Director Charles Clifford has said the authorities are preparing a Mass Migration Contingency Plan in the event that the numbers continue to grow and to help mitigate the impact on the relevant government agencies.

Clifford has also confirmed that officials from his agency or the coastguard will not intercept the boats carrying migrants at sea because the International Convention on the Treatment of Refugees requires that the men and women on board are processed in the same way as if they had landed.

However, the US Coast Guard routinely returns Cubans intercepted at sea to Cuba. According to the Miami Herald, since 1 October 2021, the USCG has stopped 1,556 Cuban migrants.


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Category: Local News

Comments (11)

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  1. Elvis says:

    Good lawd 163?…..

  2. Anonymous says:

    The beauty of the best free healthcare in the world and free education.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    It’s not really a stream, more of a dribble.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Cuban refugees are classified as ECONOMIC refugees. There are numerous posters to this forum who DO NOT KNOW the requirements of international protocols regarding economic refugees!

    There are BIG differences in the acceptance and processing of economic refugees and those who flee persecution or war.

    Cayman Islands authorities respond in the REQUIRED and accepted manner of accepting (or not)/holding/processing these refugees, under the appropriate UN Conventions.

    Please EDUCATE yourselves before criticizing the actions of Cayman’s authorities on refugee policies!!

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    • Anonymous says:

      They really don’t. It would be eadier to ask th migrants where they want to go, get them a tourist visa and put them on a plane.

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    • Last Zion says:

      1) there is no such a thing as a economic refugee as recognised by the UN Convention or the Cayman Islands. You don’t know what you are talking about.

      2) a refugee is

      “owing to wellfounded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear,
      is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”

      you will notice that economic have nothing to do with the grant of refugee status.

      3) if you are a economic migrant… you are not a refugee then you are returned to your country of origin or let to continue travelling on your way.

      4) those Cuban’s who are granted refugee status are because either the Department of WORC or RPAT agreed that they were refugees.. nothing to do with their economic situtation…

      the Cayman Islands arguably does deal with the Cubans in a manner acceptable to the UN Convention however the lack of legal aid and resources might mean that this is no longer the case although a grand court case a couple of years ago said the CIG was ok on this.

      Please educate yourself.

  5. Anon. says:

    1. Why should the CBC explain why they used their usual protocols?

    2. We leave people to the tender mercy of the sea because if we go out and get them we need to process them? That’s pretty cruel.

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    • Bodden Towner says:

      Hellooo … this is the same government that forced expats to get pfizer vaccine, and you did nothing about it, nor called it cruelty. You were find with the expat getting the next plane out if they don’t want the shot. Individual rights don’t matter in the Cayman Islands. Wake up. And what do you think about Cuban migrants that are not even contributing workwise to these islands? Should government consider their individual rights and be a charitable organization? 🤷🏽‍♂️ This is the same government that claims we are a Christian nation.

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