Questions unanswered on trafficking

Tuesday, April 5, 2005

The United States Customs and Border Protection have still not disclosed the full details of the fate of six Chinese nationals and two Singapore nationals that were detained after entering the US through Grand Cayman using false travel documents.

“This was the first case that undocumented persons have entered Tampa or for that matter, South Florida from the Cayman Islands,” said Norma Morfa, US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson. “There were six Chinese nationals and two Singapore nationals that were detained without proper documentation.”

She further explained that ‘undocumented’ means false passports since people cannot board an international flight without a passport of some kind. However, Cayman Net News has learned the six Chinese and two Singapore nationals were using Philippines passports. Ms Morfa could not comment on whether the nationals were still being detained, were allowed to enter the country or were deported.

However, the eight people travelling with false passports were most likely transferred to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement for investigation under the US Homeland Security procedures. Ms Morfa also could not comment on whether this was part of an organized group of human trafficking. 

On 7 February, a Cayman Airways flight from Grand Cayman landed in Tampa, when it was announced to passengers that the US Customs and Border Protection would be boarding the plane. 

The authorities then checked all passengers’ passports and detained several men and women of Chinese origin. 

Cayman Airways CEO Mike Adam acknowledged the incident occurred and that it was fairly common throughout the airline industry. However, he could not comment further on the incident. 

Chief Immigration Officer Franz Manderson has also confirmed the incident, but was unable to provide anymore information since Cayman Net News contacted him on 29 March. 

Although this is the first incident of persons using Cayman as a transitory point for entering the US illegally, the number of people detained and the nationalities involved point to human trafficking. 

This is a problem that has been on the rise across the world as people seek to escape repressive regimes, war or poverty. People from impoverished countries often pay large sums of money to traffickers to transport them to wealthy countries like the US or UK. 

Questions have arisen that Cayman may have become attractive to human traffickers attempting to bypass the increasing restriction of US Homeland Security, because of Cayman’s reputation as a wealthy jurisdiction as well as its proximity to the US.

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