Between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, a total of 48 Cuban refugees landed on local shores, Customs and Border Control confirmed.
CBC, in a statement Monday afternoon, said several migrant vessels arrived in the Cayman Islands over the holidays, the first of which landed Friday, 23 Dec. 2022 at approximately 10am on Cayman Brac.
The vessel with 19 men and one woman came ashore, the CBC said.
“Five male migrants chose to disembark and the vessel continued on their journey, however hours later those remaining on board chose to disembark when the vessel arrived in Grand Cayman,” the statement said.
The day before their arrival, eight Cuban nationals who were adrift approximately 35 miles south of mainland Cuba were returned to that country after intervention from Cayman’s Coast Guard and a crude-oil tanker from the UK.
Next, CBC said on Friday, 30 Dec., two vessels arrived, one in East End and one in North Side at approximately 2pm with a total of 16 people on board.
CBC said both vessels contained six men and two women.
This was followed by another landing on Sunday, 1 Jan. 2023 at approximately 4pm.
In that instance, a vessel came ashore in North Side with ten men and two women, all of whom disembarked.
All refugees, CBC said, are being processed in accordance with established CBC protocols.
While Cayman is grappling with the influx of Cuban refugees, so too are officials in the Florida Keys, the Miami Herald reported Monday.
The newspaper reported that since Friday “more than 500 Cubans arrived in the island chain. So many landed in a group of sparsely inhabited islands off Key West that the federal government was forced to close the Dry Tortugas National Park on Sunday.”
The Compass has requested an updated figure on the total number of refugees currently under CBC care; we are awaiting a response.
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