Tag: Cuban asylum seekers
Cuban migrant arrested, baby taken into care
(CNS): Javier Freites, the man who appears to have led the standoff between the Cuban migrants and local authorities last week, has been arrested, officials have confirmed. The Cubans were removed from the MV Bulk Freedom, the ship that had rescued them out at sea, late Thursday night. However, Customs and Border Control stated that […]
Cubans leave boat as standoff ends
(CNS): The MV Bulk Freedom was finally able to leave the George Town harbour late last night after the stand-off between the Cuban migrants and the Cayman authorities ended. The government obtained a court order to get treatment for a sick infant among the group after her parents repeatedly refused to accompany her to hospital […]
Captain insists Cuban migrants must get off his ship
(CNS): The captain of the MV Bulk Freedom has indicated that he is unwilling to take the Cuban migrants currently occupying a communications room aboard his vessel to any other port and has insisted that the group must disembark here in the Cayman Islands, according to the latest official update on the impasse. Customs and […]
Baby falls ill as Cuban Facebook stream cuts off
(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 […]
Cubans still refuse to leave tanker
(CNS) UPDATED 2:20pm Wednesday: Officials have now confirmed that there are 12 adults and one baby aboard the Bulk Freedom, a merchant tanker which remains anchored in George Town Harbour as the stand-off between Customs and Border Control (CBC) and a group of Cuban migrants, who are refusing to disembark, continues. One man, who is […]
911 loses contact with Cubans on tags
(CNS) UPDATED: More Cuban asylum seekers who have been living in the community wearing electronic tags as they wait for their asylum claims to be heard have gone missing. Border Control has confirmed that they have been unable to locate ten refugees. With the last signals from the monitoring devices being received by the Department […]
Refugee family allowed to stay together
(CNS): Cabinet has used its powers to allow the family of a refugee to stay together until a gap in the immigration legislation has been addressed. Erica Alvarez-Freites will be allowed to remain in Cayman and legally work for two years, by which time the law will have been changed to enable her to regularize […]
Legal gap threatens Cuban refugee family
(CNS): Government has accepted that a gap in the law is causing problems for a family of Cuban refugees who have been protesting outside the government building this week. Javier Freites has been granted asylum in the Cayman Islands, but while his 10-month-old baby daughter also has the right to reside here with him, the […]
Ombudsman mediated for refugees in need
(CNS): When a group of Cubans, comprising some who have been granted asylum in the Cayman Islands as well as asylum-seekers, held a demonstration this summer at the Government Administration Building in George Town seeking financial help, the Office of the Ombudsman was able to negotiate a resolution without resorting to a full blown inquiry. […]
Prison investment plans too slow, says HRC
(CNS): It is no secret that for many years conditions in Cayman Islands prisons have been dire and in desperate need of investment. But in a newly published document the Human Rights Commission detailed the human rights challenges, describing Cayman’s prison system as “overcrowded, chronically underfunded and in need of urgent investment”. The HRC warned […]
Eight Cubans begin hunger strike
(CNS): A group of eight Cuban migrants being held at the Immigration Detention Centre who landed in the Cayman Islands in September have begun a hunger strike to protest the immigration process, how their asylum claims are being handled, their access to bi-lingual attorneys and restricted access to communications. CNS understands that the asylum claims […]
