boat carrying 22 Cuban refuge-seekers was intercepted by a Cayman Islands patrol craft, but all were in good shape and were allowed to continue on their way to Honduras, according to a news report Tuesday.
The Cayman News Service reported that Immigration Department officials had confirmed the 20 men and two women from the eastern Cuba town of Manzanillo were spotted Sunday evening off Cayman Brac island, part of the Caribbean archipelago.
The passengers were in good health and after making “minor repairs” to their boat, they continued their trip south-west toward Honduras, according to the report. From Honduras they would go by land to the Mexican border with the United States.
The report did not detail what type of repairs the boat needed — which determines how Cuban migrants are treated when they are spotted in the territorial waters of the British-run international banking center 125 miles south of Cuba.
Since 2005, Cubans in bad health or in boats that are not seaworthy are detained in the Cayman Islands, while healthy migrants in fit vessels are allowed to continue on their trips. Those forced ashore can apply for asylum, which is almost never granted.
Before then, Cayman officials and residents were allowed to the refuge-seekers with food, water and gasoline, and even to make major repairs to their vessels, so they could continue on their journeys.
The number of Cubans spotted in Cayman waters has been increasing in the past year, apparently because the communist-ruled government’s embrace of some mild market-type economic reforms has caused food prices to spike and cut into government services.
Five groups of Cubans were spotted in Cayman waters in 2011, compared to none the previous year. Almost all were deported to their home country, with the last batch of 16 flown back to Cuba two weeks ago after their requests for asylum were denied.
But Rafael Hidalgo Figueredo and Fernando Figueredo Corrales, both in their 30s, escaped from an Immigration Department lockup on Jan. 21 and have not been found, according to published reports.
A Cayman publication, The Cay Compass, published an editorial earlier this month urging a review of the agreement with the Cuban government that bars officials and residents from helping the migrants.
“Most Caymanians would like to offer emergency provisions and send the Cubans along on their journey to freedom,” the editorial noted.
Source-www.miamiherald.com
