47 Cuban migrants spotted in Cayman waters

Posted on Monday, 11.04.13

47 Cuban migrants spotted in Cayman waters
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

At least 47 Cuban migrants aboard three boats have been spotted since
Friday in the territorial waters of the Cayman Islands, a British
possession 125 miles off the southeaster coast of the communist ruled
nation.

The Cayman News service reported that a Cuban boat carrying 13 men and
two women had been seen Saturday off the Bodden Town area of Grand
Cayman, the largest island in the archipelago, and was allowed to sail on.

A reader's comment attached on Monday to that report on the digital
pages of the news service said that another Cuban boat was visible off
South Sound in Grand Cayman but did not give the number of passengers or
whether they had sailed on or gone ashore.

Another 32 Cuban migrants, including three women, were spotted aboard a
tiny boat off the smaller Cayman Brac Island on Friday. Several were
treated for nausea but the boat was allowed to go on, according to
police reports.

Cubans escaping from the southeastern coast of their island often cross
Cayman territorial waters as tides and winds push them toward Honduras,
from where the migrants hope to travel by land to the Mexican border
with the United States.

Seven Cuban boats were sighted in 2012 in the waters of the Cayman
Islands, a banking center and tourist destination with 57,000 permanent
residents. Nine were spotted there in 2011 and three in 2010.

Under a 1999 agreement with Havana, Cayman authorities allow Cubans in
boats considered to be safe to sail on, but cannot assist them with
food, water or boat repairs. Those in unsafe vessels, and those who
simply want to get off, are detained ashore.

They can apply for political asylum, but virtually all are rejected and
repatriated to Cuba.

Of the 1,200 Cubans who arrived in the Cayman Islands during the 1994
"Rafter Crisis" — when ruler Fidel Castro allowed more than 35,000
Cubans to take to the seas in homemade water craft — only 20 received
asylum.

Source: 47 Cuban migrants spotted in Cayman waters - Cuba -
MiamiHerald.com -
<http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/04/3731876/47-cuban-migrants-spotted-in.html#storylink=misearch>