According to Carnival Cruise Lines, on Wednesday, 15 March, their vessel, Carnival Conquest, picked up twenty-eight Cuban rafters off the coast of Jamaica during a seven-day cruise that departed Galveston, Texas, on Sunday, 12 March.

In a prepared statement they said, “As per standard company protocol, the appropriate authorities were notified. The twenty-eight individuals are currently on board and are being provided with food and medical treatment.

“The individuals may be disembarked in Cozumel when the Conquest docks there ….(Friday). However, that has yet to be determined. The Carnival Conquest will return to Galveston as scheduled on Sunday, 19 March, and will depart on another seven-day cruise later that afternoon.”

A release from the Cayman Islands Government Information Service stated that the group, which consisted of twenty-five males and three females, was rescued at sea by the ship’s crew while the vessel was en route to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Cayman’s Immigration Department officials boarded the vessel and were briefed by the chief purser of the Conquest, who is responsible for assisting port authorities. The officials were then taken to the rooms were the Cubans were housed.

All appeared to be in good health, which was subsequently confirmed by the medical report provided by the ship’s doctor. The release stated that, because no one in the group met entry requirements, Cayman’s immigration officials did not allow the group to disembark.

According to the chief purser, Jamaica’s officials in Montego Bay also did not allow them to disembark. Immigration officers will return to the ship prior to its departure to ensure that all members of the group have remained on the ship, the release concluded.

In a January 2003 paper, Troubled Waters: Rescue of Asylum Seekers and Refugees at Sea, Kathleen Newland of the Migration Policy Institute notes, “While the obligation of seafarers to rescue people in peril is clear in legal documents, what happens next is murkier.” The paper states that Convention on

Search and Rescue mandates that a rescue is not complete until the rescued person is delivered to a place of safety. That could be the nearest suitable port, the next regular port of call, the ship’s home port, a port in the rescued person’s own country, or one of many other possibilities.

“When refugees or asylum seekers are among those rescued at sea, however, the list of options is narrowed. A refugee must not, under international law, be forcibly returned to a country where his or her life or freedom would be endangered - or, by extension, to a country where he or she would not be protected against such return.”

According to Ms Newland, allowing a refugee or asylum seeker who has been rescued at sea to disembark on one’s territory triggers a specific set of obligations on the part of the authorities of the receiving state.

Refugees and asylum seekers are protected by the 1951 Refugee Convention, and they cannot simply send the refugees home, as they would be able to do with other travelers. “As a result, many states are reluctant to accept refugees, and they are under no positive obligation to open their doors.”

The paper concludes, “The intersection of maritime law and refugee law thus leaves ship owners, masters, and crews in a quandary. They must pick up refugees and asylum seekers whose lives are in danger, but no state is required to take them in.”

The governments of the United States, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica have all signed agreements with the Government of the Republic of Cuba concerning the repatriation of Cuban migrants. However, the Refugee Convention takes precedence if the migrants seek political asylum.

 nicky@caymannetnews.com