Despite political changes, Cubans still leaving island

Posted on Thu, Aug. 17, 2006

IMMIGRATION
Despite political changes, Cubans still leaving island
Migrants have continued to leave Cuba for the United States since Fidel
Castro turned over control to his brother.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

Fidel Castro's decision to cede power temporarily to his younger brother
stunned the world, but it has not deterred undocumented Cuban migrants
from leaving for the United States.

U.S. government officials in South Florida said Wednesday that Cuban
migrants have continued to leave the island since July 31 when Castro
made his surprising announcement that he was turning over control to
Raúl Castro while he recovers from surgery for an undefined ``intestinal
crisis.''

Twenty Cuban migrants landed on Marco Island off South Florida's west
coast Tuesday, perhaps an indication migrant smugglers may be steering
away from the Florida Keys and South Florida's east coast, possibly
because of stepped up U.S. patrols in those areas. Border Patrol
officials said it was too soon to say migrants had found a new route.

Petty Officer James Judge, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman in Miami, said
Wednesday that at least 55 people had been interdicted and repatriated
to Cuba since Aug. 1.

Steve McDonald, a Border Patrol spokesman in Pembroke Pines, said more
than 50 Cuban migrants had made it to South Florida in the last two
weeks -- including the Marco Island group.

NO CHANGE IN FLOW

Both McDonald and Judge said their agencies had not detected any change
in the Cuban migrant flow pattern since the government change in Cuba.

So far this year at least 1,567 Cuban migrants have been stopped at sea.
Most have been repatriated. A total of 2,952 Cuban migrants were
interdicted last year, the largest number in one year since the 1994
rafter exodus when 37,191 were spotted at sea.

Under the current wet foot/dry foot policy, undocumented Cuban migrants
caught at sea are sent back to the island -- although a few have been
allowed to enter the United States for medical or investigative reasons.
Some have been taken to the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for
possible resettlement in third countries.

Ramón Saúl Sánchez, head of the Democracy Movement, said 54 Cuban
migrants are now at Guantánamo awaiting resettlement and that most are
Cuban dissidents who would face persecution if returned. They include a
10-year-old boy who suffers from diabetes and an older man with lung
cancer; both require constant medical attention, he said.

PLEAS FOR VISAS

Four of the Guantánamo migrants spoke by telephone to reporters
Wednesday at a Democracy Movement news conference in Miami and asked
President Bush to grant them visas to the United States.

The migrants said the wait for resettlement is lengthy and that most
have languished at the base for months. Sánchez said a former Cuban
military officer has been in Guantánamo waiting for a visa from another
country for more than two years. Sánchez said a State Department
official who recently visited the Cubans in Guantánamo told them they
may have to wait up to four years for a visa.

A State Department official denied anyone from his agency could have
said that.

`ROLLING POPULATION'

''It's a rolling population, and there's no way of telling how long any
of them will be be there,'' the official said. ``It depends on the
willingness of countries. We are continuosly trying to find resettlement
countries for these individuals.''

While the State Department would not say how many have been resettled in
third countries, a person familiar with the program said more than 200
Guantánamo Cuban migrants have been resettled since the policy took
effect in the mid-1990s.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15291042.htm