Thursday, February 15, 2007
Last Monday morning, 19 Cuban migrants in a makeshift vessel arrived at
Scott's Dock in Cayman Brac and threatened to hijack an anchored boat.
Twelve of the migrants were detained and heavily guarded overnight in
the Creek Police Station lock-up facility.
On Tuesday afternoon, eleven of the Cubans were transported to Grand
Cayman for processing on a chartered Cayman Airways Express flight.
One remained in Cayman Brac to have minor surgery and will be
transferred to Grand Cayman at a later date.
Officials said they have to act in accordance with the Government's
current implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which
dictates that no assistance of any sort is given if the Cuban migrants
choose to continue their journey.
They could, however, decide to remain on the Island and be repatriated
to Cuba.
The Customs Enforcement boat 'Defender' escorted the other seven Cubans,
who chose to continue their journey unassisted to Central America in
their 1940 Russian made diesel engine boat.
Customs accompanied them until they reached west of Little Cayman,
leaving the Cubans sometime around 9:00 pm Monday night.
By 10:30 am Tuesday morning, the District Officer in Little Cayman
advised the District Administration in Cayman Brac that the group of
seven had returned and landed on Little Cayman.
According to Immigration officials, the seven migrants will be
transferred shortly to Cayman Brac.
One tourist looker believed that assistance should have been given to
the migrants from the beginning.
"It is very stupid and inhumane. If they had helped them yesterday it
would have cost no more than $200 maximum. There were private citizens
offering to help," he said.
"The Cubans would have continued on. Cayman is not their destination of
choice. They just stopped in to get help to finish their journey."
A local resident of the Brac also felt the Cuban dissidents should have
received help. "What has happened to our hearts – this is supposed to be
a Christian island and we just send human beings on to face such
perils," he said.
When the 16 men and three women first arrived in the Brac, the
Immigration officers communicated the MOU policy.
The group, comprised of Cuban nationals from Cientufuego, chose to leave
unassisted, but returned shortly afterwards to the same location and the
hostilities ensued with the Immigration officials.
The Cubans threatened to commandeer an anchored vessel at the dock
unless they received the assistance they sought to continue their escape
from Cuba. However, 12 of the dissidents decided to abandon their
journey and be repatriated to Cuba, while the other seven attempted to
reach their desired location, Honduras.
One of the migrants had previously been repatriated to Cuba on 18
January 2007 and was one of the seven who decided to continue on the
voyage to Honduras.
The Cayman Islands, in particular Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, has
seen an influx of Cubans who mostly head to the US, which is 90 miles
north of Cuba.
Uncertainty in Cuba about the health of its leader Fidel Castro has not
deterred Cubans from trying to flee the communist island, and despite
the current Island policy, dissidents still reach here.
http://www.caymannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000116/011635.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment