Cubans return after departure

A group of eighteen Cubans stayed on the Sister
Islands for four days

Friday,  February 10, 2006

A group of seven Cubans that landed at East End Wednesday, remained in the Sister Islands for four days, left Cayman Brac twice, and both times deposited the larger portion of their group on Little Cayman before continuing their journey.

The group initially reached Cayman Brac Friday morning, 3 February, in a sturdy vessel, which an official release described as 16-feet long. The eighteen men on board were met by officials and reportedly opted to continue their seaward journey together at that point.

Cayman Net News witnessed them leaving from the Buccaneers’ Cut on the northwest shore on Friday at around 9:30 am, after being interviewed by immigration officials.

After reaching Little Cayman’s Point of Sand, a journey of approximately five miles, twelve Cubans were left by their fellow migrants on the beach. The twelve were spotted by tourists on the Island, and they were also seen wandering inland.

Their boat meanwhile, with their six compatriots on board, travelled along the north side of the Island heading west, according to Little Cayman residents, who also claim it was escorted back by an official vessel. 

It is not clear why the group of eighteen men split up temporarily and there was no mention of this in any of the official releases, which say only that they “stopped at Little Cayman”. 

Some residents have indicated that they believed the twelve were left on the beach because they did not want to continue the journey.

Residents say they later saw the boat in Ken Hall’s Dock, where it remained over a three hour period while allegedly minor repairs were made, in direct contravention of the current Government guidelines on dealing with Cuban migrants.

This boat was escorted Friday afternoon back to the east end of Little Cayman and round past Point of Sand, and then west along the south side of the Island.

However, local Brac fishermen told Net News that the boat was back on Cayman Brac Saturday evening, where it appears to have remained until Tuesday morning, when it again left Cayman Brac with eighteen men on board. 

By Tuesday late afternoon, the boat had left eleven men on the east end of Little Cayman, and headed out to sea in a westerly direction with the other seven. Those left behind then had to be picked up by Brac officials and taken to that Island again.

The official report omits most of these details. According to the release, the seven Cuban males who entered waters off East End Wednesday “were part of the eighteen Cubans who were reported last Friday to have left Cayman Brac en route to Honduras. 

“However, the entire group landed (Tuesday) in Little Cayman after eleven of them decided not to continue.

The group then splintered, with the seven men attempting to continue their travels to Honduras. 

“The eleven others are being housed in Cayman Brac until arrangements are made to send them to Grand Cayman for further processing,” the release states and adds that the vessel in which the seven men were travelling was damaged as they tried to come over the East End reef. All eighteen of the Cubans appear to be in good health.

The seven are now being processed by the Immigration Department in Grand Cayman. Under current Government guidelines passed by Cabinet in January 2005, Cuban migrants who illegally enter the Cayman Islands by vessels or by other means will be repatriated to Cuba unless they are determined to be refugees as defined in the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees. 

Net News has received several allegations that, on occasions, certain groups of Cuban migrants have arrived on the Sister Islands with one or more individuals who did not want to continue their journey by sea. It has been alleged that they were told either the whole group stays or the whole group leaves together.

In October, 2005, Net News asked Deputy Chief Secretary Donovan Ebanks to clarify the Cayman Government’s position and asked whether there was any form of coercion to persuade individuals reluctant to continue to leave with the rest of the group.

Mr Ebanks said that this (situation) would not be acceptable to the Cayman Government, and denied that this form of ultimatum had ever been given to a group of migrants who reached the Cayman Islands. 

Immigration in the Sister Islands falls under District Administration and not Chief Immigration Officer Franz Manderson.

There are now thirty-five Cubans being held in Grand Cayman, and eleven in Cayman Brac. 

nicky@caymannetnews.com 

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