Cubans using Honduras as exit route

Posted on Mon, Jul. 17, 2006

IMMIGRATION
Cubans using Honduras as exit route
Honduran authorities are seeking to halt the increasing flow of Cubans
using their shores as a way to get to the United States.
BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
nsanmartin@MiamiHerald.com

Honduran authorities are devising a plan to halt what they say is an
organized smuggling operation, fearing an ''avalanche'' of illegal
landings by Cuban migrants who are using Honduras as a gateway to the
United States.

''What we are witnessing is the trafficking of human beings,'' Germán
Espinal, Honduran director general of international migration, told The
Miami Herald. ``We need to find a mechanism that will distance us from
being accomplices to human trafficking.''

A record number of Cubans have landed on Honduran beaches this year: at
least 380 over the past six months, compared to 179 in all of 2005 and
47 in 2002. Soon after arrival, the Cubans usually leave Honduras by
land to make their way to the U.S.-Mexico border and become
beneficiaries of the U.S. wet-foot/dry-foot policy upon stepping on U.S.
soil.

The number of Cuban migrants illegally entering the United States across
the U.S.-Mexico border also reflects the trend. For the first time in
recent memory, Cubans now rank among the most often apprehended along
the border, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Honduran authorities say they hope to reach some kind of accord with the
U.S. and Cuban governments that will dissuade those trying to flee the
island from using the Central American nation as a stopover to El Norte.

`CHAOTIC SITUATION'

''We are concerned about an avalanche,'' Espinal said in telephone
interview from Honduras. ``We don't have the resources to deal with
this. It creates a very chaotic situation.''

Honduras has become a magnet for Cuban migrants because, unlike most
nations in the region, it has no deportation accord with Cuba. That
allows those who make it there to stay just long enough to then slip out
of the country, make their way by land across Guatemala and Mexico and
finally slip into the United States.

Authorities are convinced the numbers point to an organized smuggling
ring because larger groups of 20 to 30 migrants are now being dropped
off by go-fast boats after a stopover in the Cayman Islands or Jamaica.
Some of the loads also include other nationalities, such as Chinese and
South American migrants.

Cuban migrants have told authorities the ride costs $15,000 to $18,000
per passenger, Espinal said, adding that the smuggling suspicion is
boosted by the fact that travelers ``come in good shape, not as if
they've had a lot of exposure to the sun.''

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Dana Warr said the situation is ``typical
of what an organized smuggling organization would look like.''

''We know that the Cuban migration is going in other directions besides
the United States,'' Warr said. ``Around the Cuban community, there is a
growing trend of illegal migration. They are going through foreign
countries, but they're coming to the United States.''

Espinal said preliminary plans call for separating Cuban migrants into
three distinct groups: those with valid claims for political asylum,
humanitarian cases and those fleeing only for economic reasons. Although
Honduran laws prohibit deporting Cubans to their homeland, ``we can
return them to the country where they departed from.''

Those kinds of options has raised concern among some activists. Honduran
Human Rights Commissioner Ramón Custodio said repatriation could violate
terms of an international convention on refugees signed by Honduras in 1992.

''All we care about is the care of any human being who seeks refuge in
any country,'' Custodio said. ``If they arrive on our shores, we must
treat them as humanely as possible.''

Some Cubans who have made the 700-mile journey from the island's
southeastern coast to Honduras deny that there's any organized
people-smuggling.

`NO TRAFFICKING'

''That is a lie. Cubans are building their own boats . . . There is no
trafficking . . . '' said René Crespo, who made the illegal trip to
Honduras 18 months ago and now lives in Miami. His wife was in a group
of 22 Cubans rescued by Honduran fisherman earlier this month. All of
them are expected in Miami.

Crespo said that if Honduras closes its borders to Cubans, ``things are
going to get ugly. Cubans will find a way to get out. They see that
those of us who make it and work can have decent lives.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/15054582.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_breaking_news