The Minister responsible for Immigration, Border Control and Labor Hon. Ricardo Don-Hue Gardiner, has given the assurance that the granting of political asylum to three of the illegal Cuban detainees in Providenciales, is not as a result of the recent protest by some of those detainees.
Four of the men gained much media attention when their faces appeared on the front page of one of the local newspapers and on television, with their mouths sewn up as part of a hunger strike protest.
Speaking at a post cabinet press briefing last Thursday, Minister Gardiner three of the four have been granted asylum, along with a Colombian national.
Gardiner also said that he received a response from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the asylum applications of five of the detainees.
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The Minister emphasized that the granting of asylum to the Cubans, was not as a result of the recent protest, as his Government will not be deflected in such a way.
