Cubans Riot at Prison

Cubans Riot at Prison
Friday, April 21, 2006

A confrontation at the Fairbanks Immigration Reception Centre between
Cuban migrants and law enforcement officers on Wednesday 19 April arose
after migrants began making demands late in the afternoon to be returned
to Cuba immediately, local authorities claimed.

Deputy Chief Immigration Officer Dennis Brady said officers were
reportedly “forced” to use pepper spray to meet the resistance offered
by the group.

According to the official report, the Cubans, who were being housed at
Fairbanks, attacked prison staff with broken furniture and rocks while
threatening further destruction of the grounds.

Mr Brady, who attended the scene, indicated that all emergency personnel
responded swiftly, effectively containing the situation.

“The prison extraction team, along with Royal Cayman Islands Police
Service and Immigration Enforcement officers, was deployed,” he said.

“No one was injured and everyone did their job professionally, without
the need for excessive force.”

Fire Services and Fire Rescue were on hand to assist with the situation.

In an effort to account for the incident, Mr Brady said, “It is
explained to the Cubans in the centre - and we hope that the people of
Cayman also understand - that it is up to the Cuban government to decide
when refugees are returned home.”

Mr Brady also claimed that the Cayman Islands Government is doing all it
can to make sure the Cubans’ human rights are observed.

However, migrants in custody have no access to independent counsel, and
are not visited by any churches or local NGOs, or even the
Government-backed Human Rights Committee. Members of the press have also
been denied access to the migrants.

According to the release, thirty-eight Cubans, including women, were
involved. Six of the remaining Cubans chose not to participate in the
situation, and were voluntarily removed from the area before the
extraction team entered the camp.

Earlier in the day sixteen of the Cubans housed there had been taken to
Immigration Enforcement offices to make phone calls so were not present
for this incident, stated the release.

Numbers of migrants currently detained in the Cayman Islands are
approaching the spike of ninety-nine in custody at the end of 2005.
There are now seventy-four Cubans being handled by the Immigration
Department, sixty-two in Grand Cayman and twelve in Cayman Brac.

The forty-five Cuban nationals that reached Cayman shores this week
brings the numbers this year alone past the two hundred mark.

An earlier Government release reports that District Administration
officials have been handling a steady stream of Cubans in recent days,
with a group of twelve (seven men and five women) arriving in Cayman
Brac at about 10:00 pm Tuesday night, 18 April.

This brings the number of Cubans to pass through Cayman waters or be
detained to more than two hundred and ten since the beginning of the year.

Government officials say this latest group’s wooden vessel experienced
engine failure, and that none was in need of medical assistance. The
group is now in the care of Immigration officials.

On Monday, 16 April, seventeen Cubans landed in the Brac in an
approximately 25-foot wooden boat. As with some previous groups, this
group indicated that they wanted to continue their journey and requested
food, water and fuel. There have been no further sightings of them
within Cayman waters.

Last Friday, 14 April, a vessel carrying sixteen Cubans (fifteen males
and one female) arrived in Grand Cayman. This group had passed through
Cayman Brac the day before, at that time indicating to Brac officials
that they were going to continue their journey. This group is being
housed at the Immigration Reception Centre in Grand Cayman.

This steady flow reflects an increasing number of Cuban migrants
reported elsewhere in the region, frequently accounted for by human
smuggling operations. Between September 2005 and last February, 1,243
Cubans were detained in Mexico’s Caribbean coastal region.

The Cuban government has alleged the existence of a smuggling network
financed by anti-Castro exiles in Miami that is landing migrants in
Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, purportedly in collusion with local
immigration officials.

According to the US Coast Guard (USCG), professional smugglers can make
significant amounts of money smuggling people. Professional smuggling
has brought more sophisticated tactics, such as meeting pick up vessels
at sea or the use of electronics to aid in migrant smuggling.

Many smugglers use large vessels capable of carrying larger groups or
high speed boats attempting to out-run the Coast Guard. Many smugglers
have also encouraged migrants to violently resist the Coast Guard, or
will even throw them overboard in an attempt to distract pursuing Coast
Guard cutters.

“Just because these boats are sometimes in better condition than a
migrant raft does not make them safer; smugglers often overload their
boats to increase profits and don’t provide lifejackets or other safety
gear for the passengers,” reports the USCG.

nicky@caymannetnews.com
http://www.caymannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000012/001284.htm