Baby falls ill as Cuban Facebook stream cuts off

| 08/04/2021 | 21 Comments

(CNS): Social media posts by Cuban refugees and migrants aboard the Bulk Freedom show that Jouz Javier Freites’ phone was cut off at around 8:00 Thursday morning and he is no longer able to live-stream the situation on the cargo ship. Meanwhile, his baby is believed to be very unwell and in need of medical attention. There have been no updates from the Cayman authorities since Wednesday afternoon about how they are dealing with what is now the third day of a stand-off with the migrants, who are refusing to leave the ship that rescued them early Tuesday morning. The migrants have said they do not want to be in Cayman and are begging to be taken to America.

The question of the baby’s health was the subject of the most recent social media posts but many of those videos are now failing to load, as it appears the Cubans are losing access to data and their social media accounts.

The ship remained anchored off the George Town port at the time of posting. It is understood that this is presenting problems for the captain, according to snippets from the social media postings.

Efforts by Customs and Border Control, the RCIPS and the Cayman Islands Coast Guard to board and remove the migrants yesterday by force were abandoned and the Cubans spent another night aboard the ship that plucked them all from the water some 50 miles off the coast of Grand Cayman when the engines failed on the boat they claimed to have bought here a few days before they set sail.

Around ten members of the group were wearing electronic tags and had been housed in the community while they awaited the results of their asylum claims or deportation back to Cuba.

However, Freites has already received refugee status in Cayman and has leave to remain. But he had recently been protesting outside the Government Administration Building in George Town because the law relating to refugees does not provide for his wife, who is from the Dominican Republic, to be his dependent.

Freites, Erica Alvarez-Freites and their child were among the group of more than a dozen men and women that left Cayman sometime on Sunday when the 911 call centre lost track of their monitors.

As of yesterday evening, just one of the migrants had voluntarily left the Bulk Freedom and was taken to the government’s COVID-19 quarantine facility at the Holiday Inn. Officials have not yet responded to inquiries regarding the rest of the group or what the plan is to address the ongoing incident.


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Category: Border Control, Customs, Local News, Police

Comments (21)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Unlike us they have a plan. Say what you like but they fight for there rights! All out by govt building! We should do the same next week! Vote.

    • Anonymous says:

      Stay in Cuba and fight for your rights there. Better the conditions for you and all your fellow Cubans in Cuba

  2. Cay girl says:

    Wotless mother risking the baby health all for their stupidity

    • Anonymous says:

      6:35 say it louder for the people in the back! Their behavior is absolutely disgusting. Smh, need to take their sh*t back to their country.

  3. Anonymous says:

    The Captain of that ship is personally responsible for the welfare of that baby. So I advise him to call for an ambulance.

  4. Anonymous says:

    If they want to go to Panama – take them there, Cayman Coast guard can follow the boat, just in case they might try to over take the captain and crew and take the boat to the US.

  5. Chet Oswald Ebanks says:

    This is really a mess. If they don’t want to stay in Cayman. Please hurry and send them on their way ASAP. Some elderly Caymanians will finally get the assistance they require to live in Cayman from NAU and Government. Why is it that we continue to treat our own people like dogs. But yet embrace unthankfull persons from other countries. Storm the vessel or the Governor needs to call in Her Majesty’s finest. Don’t we have 2 British warships in the Caribbean. Remove them with force and set a course direct for Havana harbour.

  6. Anonymous says:

    I bet you the captain of that vessel now regrets taking these people on board. Caught between a rock and a hard place now. I don’t think he can go to USA with illegal migrants on board without getting into trouble?

  7. Anonymous says:

    How can they afford phones and data? Who is funding them? Is it CIG? They also bought the boat, with what?

  8. Anonymous says:

    From poorest countries to the south to the richest country in the hemisphere, millions risk everything to enter or overstay in the land of milk and honey (and drugs and gangs and tribalism, and. . . .)

  9. Anonymous says:

    Take away that poor baby and arrest them all!

  10. Anonymous says:

    Time for the Captain to set a course to Havana?

    • Anonymous says:

      No need to go all the way Havana, but the thoughts of many. However just take a 4-6 hour voyage to Cayo Largo and leave them with the Cuban fellas dressed in green.

  11. Anonymous says:

    That poor baby! Her parents suck.

    • Anonymous says:

      Many prominent people today were lugged across the border as babies to the US by their parents. Do you really think that Cubans leave on a makeshift boat for fun? Or South Americans travel north mostly by foot for fun? We have to count our blessings. Most will never understand the desperation of these people as they’ve never experienced it. They too would like to provide a life better than what they had for their children and families. It is indeed a very sad situation.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yes very sad indeed that the view of the sea from my top floor SMB condo is being sullied by this giant floating heap. I say make em swim to shore!

      • Anonymous says:

        3:15 they are denying her medical care! All else is irrelevant!

      • Anonymous says:

        Oh you mean the married couple and the baby who recently got cayman papers….cayman is so bad that they have to again risk that babies life in the open ocean. A no good ungrateful, unfit set of parents that is!

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