Panama grants asylum to 19 Cubans held by Bahamas

Posted on Sunday, 08.11.13

Panama grants asylum to 19 Cubans held by Bahamas
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PANAMA CITY -- Panama's government is granting asylum on humanitarian
grounds for 19 Cuban migrants who are being detained in the Bahamas, the
Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

Its statement said President Ricardo Martinelli made the decision to
accept the request for asylum, adding that Panama has historically been
a country that offers asylum for humanitarian reasons.

The ministry didn't identify the Cubans involved or say when they might
come to Panama.

It also didn't give any details on the conditions of the asylum seekers,
but alluded to criticism by rights groups over the treatment of Cubans
detained in the Bahamas after being stopped on suspicion of trying to
immigrate illegally to the United States.

"The complaints from international human rights groups, which have
alerted about the treatment received by Cuban citizens detained in the
Bahamas, has been one of the considerations in this decision of the
government," the Foreign Ministry said.

Activists in Florida allege that Cuban detainees in the Bahamas have
been beaten by guards, denied adequate food, water and medical care, and
deprived of the ability to file asylum claims.

One of those groups is the Miami-based "Democracy Movement," led by
Ramon Saul Sanchez. He and another member of the group, Alexis Jesus
Gomez, decided to end their weeks-long hunger strike in Little Havana
after learning of Panama's announcement.

The two plan to end their strike Monday, and said they were grateful for
the decision.

"Today we would like to thank Mr. Raymond Molina and attorney Lorenzo
Palomeras together with Vice Mayor of Doral Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera
and Ambassador Guillermo Cachez for their negotiations with the
Panamanian government and especially President Martinelli," Sanchez said
in a statement.

The group also said that the Bahamian government had agreed to install
cameras in the detention center and to work with the United Nations to
expand and make improvements to the center, according to the statement.

Both the U.S. government and United Nations have criticized conditions
in the Bahamas' detention center for migrants, who mostly come from Cuba
and Haiti. The sparsely populated island chain is frequently used as a
transit zone by people trying to reach the nearby United States and its
security force regularly detains boatloads of migrants and deports most
back to their homelands.

Bahamian officials deny any abuse and are angered over calls in Florida
for a tourism boycott.

"Bahamians are quite fed up with this attack on our country, which in
our view is unfair," Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell said this past week.
"We spend $1 billion in the Florida economy every year. What's the point
in trying to damage our economy?"

Source: "PANAMA CITY: Panama grants asylum to 19 Cubans held by Bahamas
- Cuba - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/11/3556849/panama-grants-asylum-to-19-cubans.html